Ten ships of the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
have borne the name HMS ''Basilisk'', after the
Basilisk
In European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk ( or ) is a legendary reptile reputed to be a serpent king, who causes death to those who look into its eyes. According to the ''Naturalis Historia'' of Pliny the Elder, the basilisk of Cyrene is ...
, a mythical lizard:
* was a 4-gun
bomb vessel
A bomb vessel, bomb ship, bomb ketch, or simply bomb was a type of wooden sailing naval ship. Its primary armament was not cannons ( long guns or carronades) – although bomb vessels carried a few cannons for self-defence – but mortars mounte ...
launched in 1695 and broken up in 1729.
* was a 4-gun bomb vessel launched in 1740 and sold in 1750.
* was an 8-gun bomb vessel launched in 1759 and captured in 1762 by the French
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
.
* HMS ''Basilisk'' was a
fireship
A fire ship or fireship, used in the days of wooden rowed or sailing ships, was a ship filled with combustibles, or gunpowder deliberately set on fire and steered (or, when possible, allowed to drift) into an enemy fleet, in order to destroy sh ...
, previously the 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 ...
. She was renamed HMS ''Basilisk'' in 1779 and was sold in 1783.
* was a 12-gun launched in 1801 and sold in 1815.
* was a 6-gun
cutter launched in 1822 and sold in 1846.
* was a wood paddle sloop launched in 1848 and broken up in 1882.
* was a steel screw
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 1889. She became a coal hulk and was renamed ''C 7'', finally being sold into civilian service in 1905.
* was a launched in 1910 and sold in 1921.
* was a launched in 1930 and sunk in 1940.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Basilisk, Hms
Royal Navy ship names