Seven 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 ''Hastings'', after the town of
Hastings
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
. Another two were planned, but renamed before entering service:
* was a 32-gun
fifth rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a fifth rate was the second-smallest class of warships in a hierarchical system of six " ratings" based on size and firepower.
Rating
The rating system in the Royal N ...
launched in 1695 and wrecked in 1697.
* was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1698. She capsized in 1707.
* was a 44-gun fifth rate launched in 1707,
hulked in 1739 and sold in 1744 to become 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 ...
.
* was a 44-gun fifth rate originally planned as HMS ''Endymion'', but renamed in 1739 and launched in 1741. She was broken up in 1763.
* 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 ...
ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...
, previously in service as an
East Indiaman
East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...
. She was purchased in 1819, converted to screw propulsion in 1855, used as a coal hulk from 1870 and was sold in 1885.
* was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1821 and broken up in 1855.
* was a
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 1930 and broken up in 1946.
* was to have been a . She was transferred to the
Royal New Zealand Navy
The Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN; mi, Te Taua Moana o Aotearoa, , Sea Warriors of New Zealand) is the maritime arm of the New Zealand Defence Force. The fleet currently consists of nine ships. The Navy had its origins in the Naval Defence Act ...
in 1957 and renamed , being launched in 1958.
*
HMS ''Hastings'' was to have been a Batch 2TA frigate. She was renamed before her launch in 1961, and then transferred to New Zealand and renamed .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hastings
Royal Navy ship names