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 been named HMS ''Hecla'', after the volcano

Hekla Hekla (), or Hecla, is a stratovolcano in the south of Iceland with a height of . Hekla is one of Iceland's most active volcanoes; over 20 eruptions have occurred in and around the volcano since 874. During the Middle Ages, the Icelandic Norse ...

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. * was a 10-gun

bomb vessel A bomb vessel, bomb ship, bomb ketch, or simply bomb was a type of wooden sailing naval ship. Its primary armament was not cannons ( long guns or carronades) – although bomb vessels carried a few cannons for self-defence – but mortars mounte ...

purchased in 1797. She participated in the

Battle of Copenhagen (1801) The Battle of Copenhagen of 1801 (Danish: ''Slaget på Reden''), also known as the First Battle of Copenhagen to distinguish it from the Second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807, was a naval battle in which a British fleet fought and defeated a sm ...

and was broken up in 1813 * , launched in 1815, was a bomb vessel; she was later converted to an exploration ship and was commanded by

William Edward Parry Sir William Edward Parry (19 December 1790 – 8 July 1855) was an Royal Navy officer and explorer best known for his 1819–1820 expedition through the Parry Channel, probably the most successful in the long quest for the Northwest Pass ...

during his exploration of the Arctic * was a 4-gun wooden paddle

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 1839, run aground off Gibraltar on 23 January 1855 and sold in 1863 * was a torpedo boat carrier/depot ship purchased in 1878, modernised in 1912 and sold in 1926 * was a destroyer depot ship launched in March 1940 and sunk off Casablanca on 12 November 1942 by the * HMS ''Hecla'' was a

repair ship A repair ship is a naval auxiliary ship designed to provide maintenance support to warships. Repair ships provide similar services to destroyer, submarine and seaplane tenders or depot ships, but may offer a broader range of repair capability incl ...

launched in 1944 and transferred to the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

as * , launched in 1964, was a sold in 1997

References

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