Five 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 ''Hercules'', or HMS ''Hercule'', after the Greek and Roman hero
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the Gr ...
. Another was launched, but never served in the Navy:
* was a
74-gun
The "seventy-four" was a type of two- decked sailing ship of the line, which nominally carried 74 guns. It was developed by the French navy in the 1740s, replacing earlier classes of 60- and 62-gun ships, as a larger complement to the recently-de ...
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 ...
launched in 1759 and sold in 1784.
*
HMS ''Hercule'' was a 74-gun third rate captured by in 1798 and broken up in 1810.
* was a 74-gun third rate launched in 1815. She was used for harbour service from 1853 and was sold in 1865.
* was an
ironclad
An ironclad is a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by Wrought iron, iron or steel iron armor, armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships ...
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 1868. She was used for harbour service from 1881, as a barracks from 1905, was renamed HMS ''Calcutta'' in 1909, HMS ''Fisgard II'' in 1915, and was sold in 1932.
* was a battleship launched in 1910 and sold for breaking up in 1921.
* was a light fleet
aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...
launched in 1945, but not completed until purchased by India in 1957. Commissioned in 1961 as , she was paid off in 1997 and was a
museum ship
A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small numb ...
between 2001 and 2012. She was scrapped in 2014.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hercules, Hms
Royal Navy ship names