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 ''Solebay'' after the
battle of Solebay
The naval Battle of Solebay took place on 28 May Old Style, 7 June New Style 1672 and was the first naval battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
The battle began as an attempted raid on Solebay port where an English fleet was anchored and large ...
on 7 June 1672, the first battle of the
Third Anglo-Dutch War.
* was a 24-gun
sixth rate launched in 1694. She was wrecked in 1709 on Boston Rock,
Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and beaches on the Herita ...
.
* was a 24-gun sixth rate launched in 1711. She was converted to a 6-gun
bomb vessel in 1726, an 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 ...
in 1734 and a 20-gun sixth rate in 1735. She became a
guard ship
A guard ship is a warship assigned as a stationary guard in a port or harbour, as opposed to a coastal patrol boat, which serves its protective role at sea.
Royal Navy
In the Royal Navy of the eighteenth century, peacetime guard ships were usual ...
in 1736, a
hospital ship in 1742 and was sold in 1748.
* was a 20-gun sixth rate launched in 1742. She was captured by the French in 1744, recaptured by the British in 1746 and was sold into mercantile service in 1763.
* was a 28-gun sixth rate launched in 1763. She was wrecked in 1782.
* was a 32-gun
fifth rate launched in 1785 and wrecked in 1809. Along with , they were the first ships in the
West Africa Squadron
The West Africa Squadron, also known as the Preventative Squadron, was a squadron of the British Royal Navy whose goal was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. Formed in 1808 after the British Parliame ...
that the British government had established to interdict and end the
Trans Atlantic Slave Trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
.
*
HMS ''Solebay'' was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1783 as . ''Iris'' was renamed ''Solebay'' in 1809, converted to a
receiving ship
A hulk is a ship that is afloat, but incapable of going to sea. Hulk may be used to describe a ship that has been launched but not completed, an abandoned wreck or shell, or to refer to an old ship that has had its rigging or internal equipmen ...
in 1811, lent to the
Marine Society
The Marine Society is a British charity, the world's first established for seafarers. In 1756, at the beginning of the Seven Years' War against France, Austria, and Saxony (and subsequently the Mughal Empire, Spain, Russia and Sweden) Britain urg ...
in 1815 and broken up in 1833.
* HMS ''Solebay'' was to have been an . She was laid down in 1942, but renamed later that year.
* was a launched in 1944 and broken up in 1967.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solebay
Royal Navy ship names