Nine 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 been named HMS ''Dove'' after the bird family ''

Columbidae Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

'': * was an 8-gun dogger captured from the Dutch in 1672 and wrecked in 1674. * was a 4-gun

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...

built at Deptford in 1672 and sold in 1683. * was a 4-gun

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

purchased in May 1805 and captured by the French in August the same year. * was the mercantile ''Ariadne'', launched at Cowes in 1803, and purchased in 1805 as an advice boat. She was renamed HMS ''Dove'', and then renamed HMS ''Flight'' in 1806 but foundered in September 1806. * was a 6-gun packet

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 in 1823 and sold in 1829. * , a 12-gun , was ordered as HMS ''Dove'' in 1839, renamed ''Kangaroo'' in 1843, and eventually launched in 1852. She was sold in 1897. * was an wooden screw

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-steam ...

launched in 1855 and sold at Shanghai in 1873. * was a 20-ton paddle gunboat built in sections at Yarrows in

Poplar, London Poplar is a district in East London, England, the administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, borough of Tower Hamlets. Five miles (8 km) east of Charing Cross, it is part of the East End of London, East End. It is identi ...

in 1893 and assembled in East Africa. She was transferred to the government of

British Central Africa The British Central Africa Protectorate (BCA) was a British protectorate proclaimed in 1889 and ratified in 1891 that occupied the same area as present-day Malawi: it was renamed Nyasaland Nyasaland () was a British protectorate located ...

in 1895. * was a three-funnel, 30-knot

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 ...

(later classified as a destroyer) launched in 1898 and sold in 1920.

See also