Twelve 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 ''Mosquito'', or the archaic HMS ''Musquito'', after the tropical insect, the

Mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...

: * was a vessel in service in 1777. * was a 6-gun

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

, previously the French

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 ...

''Venus''. She was captured in 1793, purchased by the Navy in 1794, and paid off in 1796. * HMS ''Musquito'' was the name vessel for the two-vessel ''Musquito'' class of floating batteries; she was launched in 1794 but wrecked in June 1795. * was a 16-gun

ship-sloop In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' enc ...

, previously the French

''Petite Magicienne''. She was captured by three Spanish frigates in September 1798. * or ''Muskito'' was a 12-gun schooner captured from the French in 1799 and sold in 1802. * was a launched in 1804 and sold in 1822. * was a launched in 1825 and sold in 1843. * was a 16-gun launched in 1851 and sold to the

Prussian Navy The Prussian Navy (German: ''Preußische Marine''), officially the Royal Prussian Navy (German: ''Königlich Preußische Marine''), was the naval force of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1701 to 1867. The Prussian Navy was created in 1701 from the f ...

in 1862. * was a composite launched in 1871 and sold in 1888. * was a paddle river gunboat launched in 1890 and sold in 1902. * was a launched in 1910 and sold in 1920. * was a launched in 1939 and sunk in 1940. * was a naval base in

Alexandria, Egypt Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

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 ...

References

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

See also

References