List of ship names of the Royal Navy
This is an alphabetical list of the [Kingfisher-class sloop|]names of all ships that have been in service with the Royal Navy, or with predecessor fleets formally in the service of the Kingdom of England or the Commonwealth of England. The list also includes fictional vessels which have prominently featured in literature about the Royal Navy. Names are traditionally re-used over the years, and have been carried by more than one ship.
Altogether over 13,000 ships have been in service with the Royal Navy.
Unlike many other naval services, the Royal Navy designates certain types of shore establishment as "ships" and names them accordingly. These establishments are often referred to in service slang as stone frigates.
Lists of ship names
Due to the large number of names the list has been split into smaller lists:Alphabetical
- List of ship names of the Royal Navy
- List of ship names of the Royal Navy
- List of ship names of the Royal Navy
- List of ship names of the Royal Navy
- List of ship names of the Royal Navy
- List of ship names of the Royal Navy
- List of ship names of the Royal Navy
- List of ship names of the Royal Navy
- List of ship names of the Royal Navy
- List of ship names of the Royal Navy
By types of ship
- List of aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy
- List of amphibious warfare ships of the Royal Navy
- List of pre-dreadnought battleships of the Royal Navy
- List of dreadnought battleships of the Royal Navy
- List of battlecruisers of the Royal Navy
- List of bomb vessels of the Royal Navy
- List of cruiser classes of the Royal Navy
- List of destroyers of the Royal Navy
- List of fast patrol boats of the Royal Navy
- List of frigates of the Royal Navy
- List of corvettes and sloops of the Royal Navy
- List of gunboats and gunvessels of the Royal Navy
- List of gun-brigs of the Royal Navy
- List of ironclads of the Royal Navy
- List of monitors of the Royal Navy
- List of mine countermeasure vessels of the Royal Navy
- List of Royal Prison ship names
- List of Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship names
- List of ships of the line of the Royal Navy
- List of submarines of the Royal Navy
- List of survey vessels of the Royal Navy
- List of Royal Navy shore establishments
Fictional RN ship names
Fictional wooden RN ships
In novels
- Argonaute
- Atropos
- Bellipotent
- Caligula
- Clam
- Clorinda
- Crab
- Harvey and Moth
- Flame
- Friday
- Harpy
- Hotspur
- Justinian
- Lotus
- Lydia
- Nightingale
- Nonsuch
- Phoebe
- Pinafore
- Polychrest
- Porta Coeli
- Pucelle
- Pluto
- Renown
- Roebuck
- Sophie
- Surprise
- Sutherland
- Themis
- Venus:.
- Witch of Endor
In films and television
- Avenger
- Defiant
- Bounty
- Venus
- Indefatigable and Hotspur
- Surprise
- Dauntless and Interceptor. Later Dauntless has been replaced by Endeavour, the vessel that became a new flagship of the Royal Navy.
- Providence
Fictional metal RN ships
Pre-WWII
- HMS Clampherdown
- The original 1920s edition of the H.P.Gibson naval boardgame Dover Patrol used a number of real RN Ship names, but generally attached them to different ship classes. Thus the "Flagships" were H.M.S. and, and the "Super Dreadnoughts" were H.M.S.,, Canada and India, but few of these resembled the actual ships with the same names in the drawings used on the playing pieces. The "Dreadnoughts" were given all new 'County' names: H.M.S. Surrey, Middlesex, Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the "Battle Cruisers" had 'Town' names: H.M.S.,,,, and. "Light Cruisers" had animal names:,,,,,, and ; "Destroyers" had 'Bird' names:,,,,, Seagull, and, and "Auxiliary Cruisers" were given insect names:,, Firefly,,,, Mosquito and. In the revised edition of the game published after WWII, the "Flagships" and "Vice Flagships" were unnamed, but all the other names shown above were retained, including the four wholly fictional County names given to the "Battleships".
- ; also "H M Battlecruiser " and "her attendant light cruiser ",
- HMS Rutland and in the 1935 John Mills film Brown on Resolution; played by :, Destroyer Leader: and :.
In WWII novels
- , a fictional from The Cruiser by Warren Tute
- HMS Apache is a fictional in the short story Gold From Crete by C. S. Forester
- HMS Conqueror is a fictional battleship frequently referred to in the novel The Destroyers by Douglas Reeman; she is clearly based on
- HMS Dipper and HMS Winger were fictional
- , Wrestler, Invader, and Blue Ranger were escort carriers of the 14th Aircraft Carrier Squadron in Alistair MacLean's novel HMS Ulysses.
- HMS Flower and HMS Compass Rose were fictional s in the short story H M Corvette and the novel The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat
- is a fictional G-class destroyer in novel Killing Ground by Douglas Reeman.
- HMS Jubilee was a fictional minesweeper in Nicholas Monsarrat's unfinished final book The Master Mariner.
- HMS Lomond is the name of the leader of a flotilla of fictional V and W-class destroyers in the novel The Destroyers by Douglas Reeman
- HMS Nairn was a fictional River-class frigate in Alistair MacLean's 1955 book HMS Ulysses.
- HMS River, HMS Colony and HMS Saltash were fictional River and s in H M Frigate and the novel The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat.
- fictional S-class destroyer in Alistair MacLean's novels The Guns of Navarone and Force 10 From Navarone
- and HMS Vectra are two escorts of the 14th Aircraft Carrier Squadron in Alistair MacLean's novel HMS Ulysses
- HMS Vagabond is a fictional in the 1989 novel The Fighting Spirit by Charles Gidley
- HMS Viperous, a fictional V and W-class destroyer from the novel The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat
- HMS Warlock, HMS Ventnor, HMS Victor, HMS Warden, HMS Waxwing, HMS Whiplash and HMS Whirlpool are members of a flotilla of fictional V and W-class destroyers in the novel The Destroyers by Douglas Reeman
- HMS Wildebeeste is the name of a ship, almost certainly a destroyer, operating alongside the main character's unnamed destroyer in novel ''Pincher Martin by William Golding
In WWII films
- HMS Torrin
- HMS Sea Tiger.
- HMS Ballantrae
- HMS Stratford, HMS Amesbury, and
- HMS Compass Rose and HMS Saltash Castle.
- HMS Rockhampton
Post-war novels
- HMS Carousel
Post-war film and media
- HMS Aristotle.
- ,,
- .
- HMS Dorchester
- HMS Gillingham.
- HMS Makepeace
- is a fictional Type 23 frigate in the Action Stations exhibit at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, Portsmouth, England.
- HMS Sherwood
- HMS Troutbridge.
- HMS Trumpton