This is an alphabetical list of the 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.[1]
Unlike many other naval services, the Royal Navy designates certain types of shore establishment (e.g. barracks, naval air stations and training establishments) as "ships" and names them accordingly. These establishments are often referred to in service slang as stone frigates.
Due to the large number of names the list has been split into smaller lists:
Many novels and films about the Royal Navy feature fictional ships, but most use real names. This is a list of fictional names of note. Where real ship names are used fictionally, there is a link to the actual ships using that name.
Fictional wooden RN ships
In film, television and radio
Pre-World War II
- The original 1920s edition of the H. P. Gibson naval board game 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. Nelson and Drake, and the "Super Dreadnoughts" were H.M.S. Australia, New Zealand, 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. London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. "Light Cruisers" had animal names: Lion, Tiger, Panther, Greyhound, Antelope, Zebra, Viper and Vixen; "Destroyers" had 'Bird' names: Albatross, Eagle, Hawk, Heron, Kingfisher, Seagull, Raven and Vulture; and "Auxiliary Cruisers" were given insect names: Ant, Bee, Firefly, Gnat, Grasshopper, Hornet, Mosquito and Wasp. In the revised edition of the game published after World War II, 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" (reclassified from "Dreadnoughts").
- Charybdis ("third-class cruiser"); also "H M Battlecruiser Leopard" and "her attendant light cruiser Penzance" (from the 1931 novel Brown on Resolution by C. S. Forester)
- Clampherdown (from The Ballad of the "Clampherdown" by Rudyard Kipling (1892); satirising the Admiral-class battleships HMS Camperdown and Benbow)
- Rutland and Leopard ("second-class cruiser" and "armoured cruiser" respectively, in the 1935 John Mills film Brown on Resolution; portrayed by C-class cruiser Curacoa, Destroyer Leader Broke, and Leander-class cruiser Neptune)
- Thunder Child (an "ironclad torpedo ram" from the 1898 novel The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells)
In World War II novels
- Antigone (Leander-class cruiser from The Cruiser by Warren Tute)
- Apache (Tribal-class destroyer in the short story Gold From Crete by C. S. Forester)
- Artemis (from The Ship by C. S. Forester; inspired by Arethusa-class cruiser HMS Penelope)
- Colony, River, and Saltash (River and Colony-class frigates in H M Frigate (1946) and the novel The Cruel Sea (1951) by Nicholas Monsarrat. In the 1953 film version HMS Saltash was depicted by Castle-class corvette: HMS Portchester Castle, and hence named Saltash Castle)
- Compass Rose and Flower (Flower-class corvettes in the short story H M Corvette (1942) and the novel The Cruel Sea (1951) by Nicholas Monsarrat)
- Conqueror (battleship frequently referred to in the novel The Destroyers by Douglas Reeman; clearly based on HMS Hood)
- Defender, Wrestler, Invader, and Blue Ranger (escort carriers of the 14th Aircraft Carrier Squadron in Alistair MacLean's novel HMS Ulysses)
- Dipper and Winger (
Kingfisher-class corvettes in the stories East Coast Corvette (1943) and Corvette Command (1944), by Nicholas Monsarrat; republished with H M Corvette as Three Corvettes in 1945)
- Gladiator (G-class destroyer in the novel Killing Ground by Douglas Reeman)
- Jubilee (minesweeper in Nicholas Monsarrat's unfinished final novel The Master Mariner)
- Lomond (leader of a flotilla of fictional V and W-class destroyers in the novel The Destroyers by Douglas Reeman)
- Marlborough (from the short story "HMS Marlborough Will Enter Harbour" by Nicholas Monsarrat; based on a 1927 sloop)
- Nairn (River-class frigate in Alistair MacLean's 1955 novel HMS Ulysses)
- Sirdar (S-class destroyer in Alistair MacLean's novels The Guns of Navarone and Force 10 From Navarone)
- Ulysses (from HMS Ulysses by Alistair MacLean, based on a fictional Dido-class cruiser)
- Vagabond (V and W-class destroyer in the 1989 novel The Fighting Spirit by Charles Gidley (Wheeler))
- Vectra and Viking (escorts of the 14th Aircraft Carrier Squadron in Alistair MacLean's novel HMS Ulysses)
- Viperous (V and W-class destroyer from the novel The Cruel Sea (1953) by Nicholas Monsarrat)
- Ventnor, Victor, Warden, Warlock, Waxwing, Whiplash and Whirlpool (members of a flotilla of fictional V and W-class destroyers in the novel The Destroyers by Douglas Reeman)
- Wildebeeste (almost certainly a destroyer, operating alongside the main character's unnamed destroyer in the novel Pincher Martin by William Golding)
Colledge and Warlow (2006) Page viii.