Six ships of the British

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 ''Goliath'' after the Biblical giant,

Goliath Goliath ( ) ''Goləyāṯ''; ar, جُليات ''Ǧulyāt'' (Christian term) or (Quranic term). is a character in the Book of Samuel, described as a Philistine giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''gigas'', cognate giga-) a ...

. * The first was a 74-gun

third-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Years of experience proved that the third r ...

that fought in the

Battle of the Nile The Battle of the Nile (also known as the Battle of Aboukir Bay; french: Bataille d'Aboukir) was a major naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the Navy of the French Republic at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast off the ...

. * The second HMS ''Goliath'' was renamed in 1826 prior to completion, becoming , an 84-gun ship of the line completed in 1827 and burnt in 1884. * The third was an 80-gun ship of the line, built in 1842. She was converted to screw propulsion in 1857 and burnt in 1875. * The fourth was a

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

launched in 1898 and sunk by the Ottoman torpedo boat in 1915. * The fifth and sixth ''Goliath''s were

tugs A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

requisitioned for use during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Fictional ships

HMS ''Goliath'' is the name of a fictional Royal Navy submarine in the radio series ''Deep Trouble''. RMS ''Goliath'' is the name of a fictional transatlantic passenger liner in the 1981 two-part TV miniseries ''

Goliath Awaits ''Goliath Awaits'' is a 1981 American made-for-television action adventure science fiction thriller film originally broadcast in two parts in November 1981 on various stations as a part of Operation Prime Time's syndicated programming. It is a ...

''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Goliath Royal Navy ship names