Twenty 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 ''Swan'', or the archaic HMS ''Swann'', probably after the bird, the

Swan Swans are birds of the family (biology), family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the goose, geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form t ...

: * was a

balinger A balinger, or ballinger was a type of small, sea-going vessel. It was swift and performed well under both sail and oars. It was probably developed in Bayonne for hunting whales. The ships were used in the conquest of Anglesey in 1282. They were ...

acquired 1417 and sold 1423. * was a vessel sailing with 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 ...

in 1572. * was a

flyboat The flyboat (also spelled fly-boat or fly boat) was a European light vessel of Dutch origin developed primarily as a mercantile cargo carrier, although many served as warships in an auxiliary role because of their agility. These vessels could displa ...

sailing with Drake in 1577. She was lost in 1578. * was a 'frigat' listed in service between 1632 and 1633. * was a ship launched in 1641 and wrecked in 1653. * was a 22-gun ship captured in 1652 and sold in 1654. * was a 6-gun flyboat captured from the Dutch in 1665 and sold in 1666. * was a smack launched in 1666 and captured by the Dutch in 1673. * was a 2-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 ...

purchased in 1667 and expended that year. * was a 32-gun fifth rate captured from the Dutch in 1673. She was converted into a 10-gun fireship between 1688 and 1689 and was wrecked in the

1692 Jamaica earthquake The 1692 Jamaica earthquake struck Port Royal, Jamaica, on 7 June. A stopped pocket watch found in the harbor during a 1959 excavation indicated that it occurred around 11:43 AM local time. Known as the "storehouse and treasury of the West ...

. * was a sixth rate captured from the Algerians in 1684 and sold that year. * was a 24-gun sixth rate launched in 1694. She foundered in 1707. * was a 12-gun sixth rate launched in 1709 and sold in 1713. * 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 1745 and sold in 1763. * was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1767. She bore the name HMS ''Explosion'' between 1779 and 1783 whilst being used as a fireship. She was sold in 1814. Between 1815 and 1840 she made 23 annual voyages as a whaler in the Northern Whale Fishery. She also made one voyage as a whaler in the Southern Whale Fishery. * HMS ''Swan'' (1782) was an 18-gun sloop, previously purchased from civilian service in 1781 and named . She was renamed HMS ''Swan'' in 1782, but capsized later that year. * was a 10-gun cutter purchased in 1788 for the Revenue Service, assigned to Royal Naval service in 1790 and wrecked in 1792. What happened in 1788 was that the contract system for Revenue cutters was abolished and the Collector of Customs Cowes was relieved of personal financial responsibility for upkeep of the vessel (''Swan II''), this responsibility was assumed by the Board of Customs. * was a 10-gun cutter purchased in 1792 for the Revenue Service, assigned for Royal Naval service in 1795 and captured that year by the French. The vessel (''Swan III'') was not transferred out of the Revenue Service; when captured it was on temporary secondment to the Admiralty and running despatches during the Quiberon landings. In October 1810, captured the French privateer cutter ''Indomptable'', of 16 guns and 130 men, and sent her into Plymouth. The privateer was described as the former revenue cutter ''Swan'', of Cowes.
Lloyd's List
', n.4499, 5 October 1810. The ''Indomptable'' was more likely to be the ''Swan V'' (built 1798, captured in 1807) rather than ''Swan III''. * was a 10-gun ''Nimble''-class cutter launched in 1811 at Cowes. She had an unexceptional wartime career. After the war she served in fishery protection, and half of her entire career as a floating chapel for seamen. She was broken up in 1874. * was an wooden screw gunboat launched in 1856, used as a coal hulk from 1869 and sold in 1906.

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

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