Thirteen 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 ''Experiment'': * was a double-hulled

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 ...

built in 1664 and lost in 1687. * was a 4-gun sloop built in 1667 and on the Navy List until 1682. * was a 32-gun fifth-rate

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

built in 1689, rebuilt in 1727 and broken up in 1738. Her logbook survives. * was a 24-gun sixth rate, launched in 1740 and sold in 1763. She captured 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 ...

''Telemaque'' in 1757 and had a young John Jervis serving on board her. * was a

storeship Combat stores ships, or storeships, were originally a designation given to ships in the Age of Sail and immediately afterward that navies used to stow supplies and other goods for naval purposes. Today, the United States Navy and the Royal Nav ...

, purchased in 1765 and sold in 1768. * was a gunboat, built in 1772. Her fate is unknown. Possibly lost in the Great Hurricane of 1780 * was a 50-gun fourth rate launched in 1774. The French 50-gun ship captured her off the North American coast in September 1779, during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, along with three

merchantmen A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are us ...

. * was a 14-gun

brig sloop In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' enc ...

purchased in 1781 and sold in 1785. * was a 44-gun fifth rate launched in 1784, used as a storeship from 1795 and for harbour service from 1805. She was sold in 1836. Because ''Experiment'' served in the navy's Egyptian campaign between 8 March 1801 and 2 September, her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal, which the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong * Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral * Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings *Admiralty, Tr ...

issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants. * was a 10-gun lugger launched in 1793 that the Spanish captured in the Mediterranean in 1796. The British privateer ''Felicity'' recaptured her in early 1806 but the Royal Navy did not take her back into service. * was a fire ship purchased in 1794 and sold in 1801. * was a 2-gun gunboat launched in 1799, gone from the Navy List by 1809. * was a wood paddle sloop serving on the Canadian Lakes. She was purchased in 1838 and sold in 1848.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Experiment, Hms Royal Navy ship names