Editing Sloop-of-war (section)

{{short description|Type of warship}}
{{About|the type of warship|the sailing boat|Sloop}}
{{For|the equivalent type of ship used in several navies|Aviso}}
[[File:HMS sloop 'Speedy' falling in with the wreck of 'Queen Charlotte' March 21 1800 at Leghorn RMG PW7970.tiff|thumb|The sloop-of-war [[HMS Speedy (1782)|HMS ''Speedy'']] off [[Livorno|Leghorn]] on 21 March 1800]]

During the 18th and 19th centuries, a '''sloop-of-war''' was a [[warship]] of the [[Royal Navy]] with a single [[gun deck]] that carried up to 18 guns. The [[rating system of the Royal Navy]] covered all vessels with 20 or more guns; thus, the term encompassed all unrated warships, including [[List of gun-brigs of the Royal Navy|gun-brigs]] and [[Cutter (boat)|cutters]]. In technical terms, even the more specialised [[bomb vessel]]s and [[fire ship]]s were classed by the Royal Navy as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were employed in the role of a sloop-of-war when not carrying out their specialised functions.

In [[World War I]] and [[World War II]], the Royal Navy reused the term "sloop" for specialised [[convoy]]-defence vessels, including the {{sclass2|Flower|sloop|4}} of the First World War and the highly successful {{sclass|Black Swan|sloop|4}} of the Second World War, with anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capabilities. They performed similar duties to the [[destroyer escort]]s of the [[United States Navy]], and also performed similar duties to the smaller [[corvette]]s of the Royal Navy.