Eight ships and one shore establishment of the
Royal Navy have borne the name HMS ''Badger'', after the
Eurasian badger:
Ships
* was a 14-gun
sloop
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...
launched in 1745 and lost in 1762.
* was a 14-gun
brig
A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...
, purchased from civilian service in 1776, where she had been named ''Pitt''. She was condemned in 1777.
* was a brig purchased in 1777 and sold in 1784.
* was a 4-gun
gunvessel, formerly a
Dutch hoy, purchased in 1794 and sold in 1802.
* was 10-gun launched in 1808. She was used as a mooring vessel from 1835, was beached in 1860 and broken up in 1864.
* was a wood screw gunboat launched in 1854. She was to have been named HMS ''Ranger'', but was renamed prior to her launch. She was broken up in 1864.
* was an iron screw gunboat launched in 1872 and sold in 1908.
* was an
torpedo boat destroyer launched in 1911 and sold in 1921.
Shore establishment
* was commissioned in 1939 as the headquarters of the
Flag Officer In Charge,
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on- ...
. The site was decommissioned in 1946, but the facility remained an emergency port control until 1992.
Hired armed vessels
* His Majesty's
hired armed cutter
Cutter may refer to:
Tools
* Bolt cutter
* Box cutter, aka Stanley knife, a form of utility knife
* Cigar cutter
* Cookie cutter
* Glass cutter
* Meat cutter
* Milling cutter
* Paper cutter
* Side cutter
* Cutter, a type of hydraulic rescue to ...
shared in the prize money for Dutch vessels captured at the
Vlieter Incident on 30 August 1799.
*His Majesty's hired armed cutter served the Royal Navy under contract between 16 November 1811 and 13 May 1814.
Excise cutter
* His Majesty's Excise Cutter ''Badger'' was recorded as capturing the French privateer
lugger ''Calaifen'' between Folkestone and
Dungeness on 5 December 1798.
* His Majesty's Excise Cutter ''Badger'' brought into Yarmouth on about 16 December 1803 a French privateer armed with one
swivel gun
The term swivel gun (or simply swivel) usually refers to a small cannon, mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun wi ...
and having a crew of 35 men.
* His Majesty's Revenue cutter ''Badger'' captured the smuggling lugger ''Iris'' on 12 November 1819 for which her commander and crew received substantial prize money.
* His Majesty's Revenue cutter ''Badger'' captured the smuggler ''Vree Gebroeders'' a yawl-rigged cutter on 13 January 1823.
Subterranean vessel
* During the summer of 2012, the inflatable "HMS Badger 1" was utilised by a group of British
cavers
Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology is ...
to cross various flooded stretches of
caves on the
Vercors Plateau of
France. The vessel appears to have been retired from cave exploration, however its operators have yet to comment on whether a "HMS Badger 2" could be launched on the Vercors or in a similar environment in the future.
Replica
* HMS ''Badger'' is a 35 ft replica
gunboat, converted from a Great Lakes lifeboat and launched in 2001. She operates from
Penetanguishene on the Canadian side of
Lake Huron
Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...
.
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Badger, Hms
Royal Navy ship names