Steam frigate

Steam frigates and the smaller steam corvettes and steam sloops were steam-powered warships. The first such ships were steam-powered versions of the traditional frigates, corvettes and sloops.

Evolution

The first vessel that can be considered a steam warship was the Demologos, which was launched in 1815 for the United States Navy.

From the early 1820s, the British Navy began building a number of small steam warships, and by the 1830s many navies were experimenting with steam-powered warships. This first generation of steam warships, termed 'paddle warships' (in the categories of frigate, sloop, gunvessel or other), used paddlewheels mounted on either the sides or in the center. The ships were equipped with large guns, generally mounted on one deck (although some larger paddle warships carried guns on two deck levels). Paddlewheels were proven in a number of Admiralty trials to be less efficient than the propeller or 'screw', and more vulnerable to damage, and from the late 1840s onwards navies began to build screw-driven steam warships.