Eleven 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 ''Scorpion'' after the carnivorous arthropod, or the

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...

, a ballistic weapon in use in the

Roman army The Roman army (Latin: ) was the armed forces deployed by the Romans throughout the duration of Ancient Rome, from the Roman Kingdom (c. 500 BC) to the Roman Republic (500–31 BC) and the Roman Empire (31 BC–395 AD), and its medieval contin ...

: * was a 14-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 1746. She sank in the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

in 1762. * HMS ''Scorpion'' was the mercantile ''Borryan'', purchased in January 1771, and commissioned as the 8-gun

fireship A fire ship or fireship, used in the days of wooden rowed or sailing ships, was a ship filled with combustibles, or gunpowder deliberately set on fire and steered (or, when possible, allowed to drift) into an enemy fleet, in order to destroy sh ...

. She was converted to a sloop in August 1771 and renamed ''Scorpion''. She took part in

Tryon's Raid Tryon's Raid occurred in July 1779, during the American Revolutionary War, in which 2700 men, led by British Major General William Tryon, raided the Connecticut ports of New Haven, Fairfield, and Norwalk. They destroyed military and public sto ...

on the Connecticut coast in 1779. She became one of the infamous Hudson River prison ships sometime after. The American poet

Philip Morin Freneau Philip Morin Freneau (January 2, 1752 – December 18, 1832) was an American poet, nationalist, polemicist, sea captain and early American newspaper editor, sometimes called the "Poet of the American Revolution". Through his newspaper, th ...

was captured by the British in 1780 and imprisoned on HMS ''Scorpion''; he wrote a harrowing first-person a poem in four cantos about his six- week ordeal titled "The British Prison Ships". It is considered "his best-known revolutionary poem". ''Scorpion'' was sold in 1780. * was a 16-gun ''Echo''-class sloop launched in 1785 and sold in 1802. She apparently became the

whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japa ...

and letter of marque ''Scorpion''. She worked in the South Seas whale fishery until the Spaniards captured her in 1808. * was a

gunvessel 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 ...

purchased in 1794 and sold in 1804 * was a launched in 1803 and sold in 1819. * was a brig-sloop launched in 1832, converted to 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 ...

in 1848 and on loan to the Thames Police from 1858. She was broken up in 1874. * was a

turret ship Turret ships were a 19th-century type of warship, the earliest to have their guns mounted in a revolving gun turret, instead of a broadside arrangement. Background Before the development of large-calibre, long-range guns in the mid-19th century, ...

, one of two being constructed for the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

under the cover story that they were intended for Egypt; the British Government seized them before they were launched in 1863. ''Scorpion'' sank in 1903 while being towed for scrapping. * was a launched in 1910 and sold for scrapping in 1921. * was a

river gunboat A river gunboat is a type of gunboat adapted for river operations. River gunboats required shallow draft for river navigation. They would be armed with relatively small caliber cannons, or a mix of cannons and machine guns. If they carried mor ...

launched in 1937 and sunk by Japanese destroyers in Banka Strait in 1942. * was an S-class destroyer launched in 1942 and sold to the Netherlands in 1945. * was a destroyer launched in 1946 and scrapped in 1971.

Citations and references

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