Sixteen 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 ''Cygnet'', the name given to a young
swan
Swans are birds of the family (biology), family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the goose, geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form t ...
:
* was a 3-gun
pink
Pink is the color of a namesake flower that is a pale tint of red. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, politeness, ...
built in 1585 and condemned in 1603.
* was a 10-gun ship, originally a
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 ...
. She was purchased in 1643 and sold in 1654.
* was an 8-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 1657 and sold in 1664.
* was a
survey vessel purchased in 1684. She foundered in 1687.
* was an 8-gun
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 ...
purchased in 1688 and captured by the French in 1693.
* was an 18-gun sloop, formerly the French ''Guirlande''. She was captured in 1758 and sold in 1768.
* was a 14-gun launched in 1776 and sold in 1802.
* was a 16-gun launched in 1804 and wrecked in 1815.
* was a 10-gun launched in 1819 that became a
Post Office Packet Service
The Post Office Packet Service dates to Tudor times and ran until 1823, when the Admiralty assumed control of the service. Originally, the Post Office used packet ships to carry mail packets to and from British embassies, colonies and outposts. Th ...
packet, sailing out of
Falmouth, Cornwall. She was sold in 1835.
* was an 8-gun brig-sloop launched in 1840, renamed ''WV30'' when handed to
HM Coastguard in 1863, and broken up by 1877.
* was a wooden screw gunvessel launched in 1860 and broken up in 1868.
* was a composite screw
gunboat launched in 1874 and broken up in 1889.
* was a
destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...
launched in 1898 and sold in 1920.
* was a
C-class destroyer launched in 1931. She was transferred to the
Royal Canadian Navy
The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack s ...
as the
River-class destroyer in 1937 and was sold for scrapping in 1947.
* was a launched in 1942 and broken up in 1956.
* was a launched in 1975 and sold in 1996.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cygnet
Royal Navy ship names