Ten 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 carried the name HMS ''Spitfire'', while an eleventh was planned but renamed before entering service. All are named after the
euphemistic
A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes t ...
translation
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
of ''
Cacafuego'', a
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
treasure
galleon
Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships first used as armed cargo carriers by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries during the age of sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch War ...
captured by
Sir Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580 (t ...
.
* was an 8-gun
galley
A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used ...
purchased in 1776 in North America for Mouatt's squadron at
Falmouth, Massachusetts
Falmouth ( ) is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 32,517 at the 2020 census, making Falmouth the second-largest municipality on Cape Cod after Barnstable. The terminal for the Steamship Authority ferri ...
. When Admiral
d'Estaing's squadron arrived in
Narragansett Bay
Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Sma ...
on 29 July 1778, she, , and were all burnt the next day to prevent the French from capturing them. ''Spitfire'' was run ashore on North Sandy Point and then burnt.
* was an 8-gun
galley
A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used ...
purchased and commissioned in 1778. The captured her on 19 April 1779, near the Azores. The French took her to Lorient where as ''Crachefeu'' she was sold that same month for
£t16,147.
*
HMS ''Spitfire'' was an 8-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 1752 as . She was converted to a
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 ...
and renamed HMS ''Spitfire'' in 1779 and was sold in 1780.
* was a 14-gun fireship purchased in 1780. Her fate is unknown.
* was a 16-gun fireship launched in 1782 and sold in 1825.
* was the French privateer
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 ...
''Poulette'' captured and purchased in 1793. She capsized in 1794.
* was a schooner of 64 tons burthen captured from the French in 1798. She was wrecked off the
Amirante Islands
The Amirante Islands (''Les Amirantes'') are a group of coral islands and atolls that belong to the Outer Islands of the Seychelles.
They stretch about 155 km from the African Banks (African Islands) in the north to Desnœufs (Isle des N ...
in August 1801.
* was a wooden paddle vessel launched in 1834 and wrecked in 1842.
* was a wooden paddle
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 ...
launched in 1845. She became 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 1851, a
tug
A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...
in 1862 and was broken up in 1888.
* was a launched in 1895 and sold in 1912.
* was an launched in 1912 and sold for breaking up in 1921.
* HMS ''Spitfire'' was to have been a
C-class destroyer. She was renamed in 1942 and launched in 1943.
;Also
*''Spitfire'' was a gunboat that the garrison at Gibraltar launched in June 1782 during the
Great Siege of Gibraltar
The Great Siege of Gibraltar was an unsuccessful attempt by Spain and France to capture Gibraltar from the British during the War of the American Revolution. It was the largest battle in the war by number of combatants. The American war had end ...
. She was one of 12. Each was armed with an 18-pounder gun, and received a crew of 21 men drawn from Royal Navy vessels stationed at Gibraltar. provided ''Spitfire''s crew.
[Drinkwater (1905), p.246.]
See also
*
HMS ''Crachefeu'', "''Crachefeu''" being French for "Spitfire".
*
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...
, the legendary
fighter aircraft
Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...
of
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 ...
.
Citations
References
*
*Drinkwater, John (1905) ''A History of the Siege of Gibraltar, 1779-1783: With a Description and Account of that Garrison from the Earliest Times''. (J. Murray).
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spitfire, Hms
Royal Navy ship names