Fourteen ships and one

shore establishment A stone frigate is a naval establishment on land. "Stone frigate" is an informal term that has its origin in Britain's Royal Navy after its use of Diamond Rock, an island off Martinique, as a 'sloop of war' to harass the First French Empire, ...

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 ''Merlin'', after

Merlin Merlin ( cy, Myrddin, kw, Marzhin, br, Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a mage, with several other main roles. His usual depiction, based on an amalgamation of historic and le ...

, the wizard in

Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...

(the shore establishment RNAS Donibristle, like the other Naval Air Stations in Scotland, was named after the sea bird): * was a 10-gun pinnance built in 1579 and listed until 1601. * was a 14-gun

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

launched in 1652 and captured by a Dutch squadron off Cadiz in 1665 while she was convoying victualing ships to Tangier; her resistance restricted the Dutch to capturing only four of her charges. * was an 8-gun yacht launched in 1666 and sold in 1698. * was a 2-gun

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 1699 and sold in 1712. * was a 10-gun sloop launched in 1744 and sold in 1750. * was a 10-gun sloop in service in 1753. * was a 10-gun sloop launched in 1756. She was captured by a French privateer in 1757, but recaptured later that year and renamed HMS ''Zephyr''. The French frigate ''Gracieuse'' recaptured her in August 1778;Hepper (1994), p.53. she was disarmed and sold at Toulon in January 1780 for Lt44,200. The purchasers turned her into a privateer, which the British privateer ''Fame'' captured and burnt on 26 August 1780. * was a 16-gun sloop launched in 1757, having been purchased on the stocks. She was abandoned and burnt in 1777 after she grounded on a sandbank while attacking the fort on Mud Island in the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...

below Philadelphia.Hepper (1994), p.50. * was an 18-gun sloop launched in 1780, having been purchased on the stocks. She was sold in 1795. * was a 16-gun sloop launched in 1796 and broken up in 1803. * was a 16-gun sloop, previously in civilian service as ''Hercules''. She was purchased in 1803 and sold in 1836. * was a 4-gun wood paddle

packet Packet may refer to: * A small container or pouch ** Packet (container), a small single use container ** Cigarette packet ** Sugar packet * Network packet, a formatted unit of data carried by a packet-mode computer network * Packet radio, a form ...

launched in 1838 and sold in 1863. * was a composite screw

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-steam ...

launched in 1871 and sold in 1891. * was a launched in 1901. She was used as a

survey vessel A survey vessel is any type of ship or boat that is used for underwater surveys, usually to collect data for mapping or planning underwater construction or mineral extraction. It is a type of research vessel, and may be designed for the purpo ...

from 1906 and was sold in 1923. *HMS ''Merlin'' was an air station of the

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

, at

Donibristle Donibristle ( sco, also Dunibirsle) was a house and estate in Fife, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth. Only the wings of the house remain, within the modern settlement of Dalgety Bay. They are now protected as a category A listed buil ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

. It was a former

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

station, but was transferred and commissioned in 1939, and was paid off in 1959.

Citations

References

* *Demerliac, Alain (1996) ''La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792''. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Merlin, Hms Royal Navy ship names