Fast naval vessel smaller than a frigate. In the 18th – 19th century corvettes were three-masted ships with square rigging and carried about 20 guns on the top deck. Often used to send dispatches within a battle fleet, they also escorted merchant ships. Early U.S. corvettes won distinction in the War of 1812. They disappeared as a class after the shift to steam power in the mid-19th century, but in World War II the term was applied to small armed vessels that served as escorts for convoys. Modern corvettes, usually displacing 500 – 1,000 tons (454 – 900 metric tons) and armed with missiles, torpedoes, and machine guns, perform antisubmarine, antiaircraft, and coastal-patrol duties in small navies.
small warship, classed between a frigate and a sloop-of-war. Corvettes usually were flush-decked and carried fewer than 28 guns. They were widely employed in escorting convoys and attacking merchant ships during the great naval wars of the late 18th and early 19th cent., but corvettes passed from use with the transition from sail to steam. At the beginning of World War II the term was reintroduced to designate a small vessel of about 1,000 tons displacement, armed with depth charges and a single 4-in. (10.2-cm) gun. In the early years of the war, large numbers of these vessels were employed by the British and Canadian navies as convoy escorts in the North Atlantic; later they were supplanted by the larger, faster, and better-armed frigates.
The first console game to exclusively feature the Corvette races onto PlayStation 2 with a selection of 80 authentic car models and a cross-country trip down the infamous Route 66. Players will start in Chicago and make their way toward Los Angeles while avoiding numerous obstacles, or they can challenge multiple opponents on a variety of tracks as they attempt to set the fastest lap times on their way to a first-place finish. Each Corvette, ranging in production year from 1953 to 2003, features a speedometer display modeled after the true-life dashboard found in the selected vehicle. Six characters are available to play as or against, and each car features upgradeable engines and suspension systems. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide
Production Credits
Company 1: Global Star Software
Senior Producer: Tim Goodlett
Producer: Gabriel Jones
Assistant Producer: Brian Etheridge
Quality Assurance Lead Tester: Carlos Garcia-Shelton
Quality Assurance Sr. Tester: Andy Pan
Quality Assurance Standards Team: Jimi Doss, Mariano Merino, Terry Oppenheimer, Mike Chang
Quality Assurance Team: Tom Anderson, Dave Miao Astremitzkov, Kevin Faubert, Jeremy Garber, Angel Gonzalez, Nam Kim, William Kus, John Langkusch, Christian Lee, Greg MacCauley, Abramham Muñoz, Mike Nehme, Hector Salavrrieta, Paul Samia
Production Team: Bill Gross, Shin Tanabe, Lorena Billing, Tamara Johnston, Andrea Frechette, Ray Woods, Andy Babb, Anthony Biondo, Vincent Bitetti, Suzanne Cantey, Brian Christian, Tim Dyer, Matt Fikse, Dick Guldstrand, Dan Kletzky, Matt Miller, Don Nauert, Steve Ryno, Adeline Petros
Company 2: Steel Monkeys Limited - Glasgow Studio
Director: Derek McLennan, Tim Dvoskin
Studio Director: William Docherty
Art Director: Scott Wilson
Head of Production: Paul Middleton
Operations Manager: Paul Middleton
Project Financial Manager: Peter Kerr
Legal and Commercial Manager: Linda MacKellar
Management P.A. and Operations: Linda Cunningham
Concept Designer: Derek McLennan, Patrick Tougas
Designer: Stuart Hunt, Andrew McLennan
Lead Programmer: William Docherty, Doug Little, Neil Stewart, Nick Hesketh
Senior Programmer: Stuart Hunt, Bryan McPhail, Christian Erskine, Graeme Harkness
Programmer: Stephen Lochran, Nick Donnelly, Tom Dalziel, Tony McBride
Lead Artist: Colin McGuire
3D Artist: Patrick Tougas, Stuart Trevor, Paul Reeves, Steve Walker, Chris Marshall
2D Graphic Design Artist: Mark Ireland
Cinematic Designer and Artist: Stuart Trevor
Audio Engineer and Musician: Alan McDermott
Systems Administrator: Dave Bruce, Bryan McPhail
Website Creation: Dave Bruce, Patrick Tougas
Company 3: Steel Monkeys Limited - Minsk Studio
Director: Tim Dvoskin, Derek McLennan
Deputy Director: Valery Kovalenko
Financial Controller: Tatyana Kulbitskaya
Lead Programmer: Oleg Shiroki
Programmer: Vyacheslav Ogrenich, Sergey Morozov
Lead Artist: Sergey Khlystov, Dmitry Goncharov, Yury Rybokov
Artist: Ivan Reshetnikov, Egor Fateev, Vadim Makarenko, Dmitry Ivanov, Oleg Raketski, Victor Laktysev, Dmitry Khodorkin, Alexander Razumov, Denis Baranovski, Andrey Mazen, Mikhail Romanovski, Alexey Atman, Andrey Smolenchuk, Gennady Kremko
Translator: Marina Kuten, Tatyana Stalchinskaya ~ Keith Adams, All Game Guide
A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, smaller than a
frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft. During the
Age of Sail, corvettes were smaller than frigates and larger than sloops-of-war, usually with a single gun deck. Almost all modern navies use
ships smaller than frigates for coastal duty, but not all of them use the term corvette (from the French corvair).
The rank Corvette Captain derives from the name of this type of ship.
Sailing vessels
During the Age of Sail, corvettes were one of many types of smaller warships. They were
very closely related to sloops-of-war. The role of the corvette consisted mostly of coastal
patrol, fighting minor wars, supporting large fleets, or participating in show-the-flag missions. The British Navy began using
small ships in the 1650s, but described them as sloops rather than corvettes. The first reference to a corvette was with the
French Navy in the 1670s, which is where the term itself possibly originated. The
Royal Navy did not use the term until after the Napoleonic
Wars to describe a small un-rated vessel similar to a sloop.
Most corvettes and sloops of the 17th century were around 40 to 60 feet (12 to 18 meters) in length and weighed 40 to 70
tons (36 to 64 metric tonnes). They carried 4 to 8 smaller guns
on a single deck. Corvettes slowly increased in size and capability, until 1800 when they reached lengths over 100 feet (30
meters) and weight ranging from 400 to 600 tons (circa 365 to 544 metric tonnes). One of the largest corvettes during the Age of Sail was the American ship, USS Constellation, built in 1855. The ship was 176 feet (54 meters) long and carried 24
guns. It was so large that some naval experts consider it a frigate. It has also been referred
to as a sloop-of-war.
Steam ships
Ships during the steam era became much faster and more maneuverable than their sail ancestors. Corvettes during this era were
typically used along side gunboats during colonial missions. Battleships and other larger vessels were unnecessary when subduing native peoples in the Far East and Africa.
World War II
The modern corvette appeared during World War II as an easily built patrol and
convoy escort vessel. The British naval designer William Reed drew up a small ship based on the
single-shaftSmiths Dock Companywhale catcherSouthern Pride, whose simple design and mercantile construction standards
lent itself to rapid production in small yards unused to naval work, and in large numbers. Future Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, had a hand in reviving the name "corvette". The first
corvettes were the Flower class (Royal Navy
ships were named after flowers, though ships in Royal Canadian Navy service took the
name of smaller Canadian cities and towns). Their chief duty was to protect convoys in the
North Atlantic and on the routes from the UK to Murmansk carrying supplies to the Soviet Union.
The Flower corvette was originally designed for offshore patrol work, and was not an ideal design for an anti-submarine
escort; they were really too short for open ocean work, lightly armed for AA defence, and little faster than the merchantmen they
escorted (a particular problem given the faster GermanU-boat designs then emerging). They were very seaworthy and maneuverable, but crew living conditions for ocean
voyages were appalling. Because of this, the corvette was superseded in the Royal Navy as the escort ship of choice by the
frigate, which was larger, faster, better armed and had two shafts. However, many small yards
could not produce vessels of frigate size, so an improved corvette design, the Castle
class, was introduced later in the war, some of which remained in service until the mid-1950s.
The Royal Australian Navy built 60 Bathurst-class corvettes, including 20 for the Royal Navy crewed by Australians, and 4 for the
Royal Indian Navy. These were officially described as Australian Mine Sweepers, or as
Minesweeping Sloops by the Royal Navy, and were named after Australian towns.
Modern corvettes
South African frigate referred to by the SAN as a corvette SAS Mendi
Modern navies have begun to see a trend in the late part of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century towards
smaller, more maneuverable surface combatants. Such vessels can theoretically operate close to shore, as well as at sea. With
recent naval operations concentrated in littoral waters the desire for smaller vessels has increased considerably. Corvettes
combine the ability to defend a country's assets and interests far away from its own shores, with sophisticated weapons and
surveillance equipment while being smaller and cheaper to operate than frigates and destroyers. Corvettes surpass all current
patrol craft/offensive missile-boats from an air-defence standpoint, as they are large enough to mount current air/self defence
systems.
Typical corvettes today are between patrol vessels and frigates in both size and capability. They have a displacement between 540 and 2,750 tons (550 and 2,800 metric
tons) and measure 180-330 feet (55-100 meters) in length. They usually are armed with medium and small caliber guns,
surface-to-surface missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and underwater warfare weapons. Many can accommodate a small or medium
ASW helicopter.
Turkey began construction on the first of twelve Milgem class corvettes in July 2005. The lead
ship, named TCG Heybeliada, is scheduled to begin sea trials in October 2010. The
design concept and mission profile of Milgem is similar to the Littoral Combat Ship of the United States.
The Hellenic Navy currently operates the Super-Vita
class ships, which are 580 tons full load. The Hellenic Navy has categorised the class as fast attack missile craft. A similar
vessel is the Kılıç class fast attack missile boat of the Turkish Navy which is classified as a corvette by Lürssen Werft, the
German designer of the ship.
The Indonesian Navy will receive indigenously designed corvettes, called 104 M
corvette in 2008. It is possible, the corvette will be armed with C-802, which is already
installed in the locally-built Fast Patrol BoatFPB-57.
The collection Three Corvettes by Nicholas Monsarrat recounts the writer's
World War II experiences on corvettes, starting as an inexperienced small-boat sailor and ending as captain.
The novel The Cruel Sea also by Nicholas Monsarrat, which is about the
life and death of a Flower-class corvette and the men in her, is regarded as one of the classic naval stories of World War
II.
The two books The Corvette Navy and On the Triangle
Run by James B. Lamb give an autobiographical and historical perspective of life on
Royal Canadian Navy corvettes in World War II. The author served on them for 6 years
from Halifax to the beaches of D-Day.
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