HMS ''Swift'' has been the name of numerous 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 ...

: :''This list may be incomplete.'' * was a 10-gun ship that was launched 1697 and ran aground off Port Comfort,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

in 1698. * was a

sloop-of-war 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 ...

of the Swift group, built in 1704 and sold in 1719. See List of corvette and sloop classes of the Royal Navy for this vessel and the four following sloops. * was a sloop of the ''Otter'' class, built in 1721 and sold in 1741. * was a sloop of the ''Drake'' class, built in 1741, and lost in 1756. * was the French 10-gun cutter ''Le Comte de Valence'', captured in 1760 and purchased by the Royal Navy on 6 March 1761. She was re-captured by 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 ...

''Manley'' on 30 June of the same year. * was a 14-gun sloop of the ''Swift'' class, built in 1763. She sank at Puerto Deseado, Patagonia, in 1770. * was a 302-ton burthen, ship-sloop which served in the American Revolutionary War. She ran aground after sinking an American privateer and was burnt by her crew in 1778 to avoid capture. * was a 14-gun

brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Older ...

, launched in 1767, that the British captured from the United States in August 1779. She was commissioned in November under the command of Robert (or Richard) Sutton. * was a 16-gun ''Hawk''-class sloop launched in 1793 that was lost with all hands while sailing from Macao to England, presumed foundered in the South China Sea in a typhoon after last being seen on 2 July 1797. * was a 4-gun pilot-boat schooner built at

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

, that the Royal Navy purchased in 1794 and that was broken up in 1802. * was the mercantile sloop ''Pacific'', launched at Rotherhithe in 1802 that the Navy purchased in 1804, laid up in 1807, converted to a store ship in 1810, and sold in 1814.Winfield (2008), p. 263. * was a packet

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...

launched in 1835. * was a gunvessel launched 1879, and sold in Hong Kong in 1920 for mercantile use. See List of gunboat and gunvessel classes of the Royal Navy. * was a torpedo boat launched between 1884 and 1887, and broken up in 1921. * was a unique flotilla leader that saw service in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It was sold for breaking up in 1921. * was an S-class

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

sunk by a mine off the Normandy beaches on 24 June 1944. * was a patrol

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

built in 1984 and sold to the

Irish Naval Service The Naval Service ( ga, An tSeirbhís Chabhlaigh) is the maritime component of the Defence Forces of Ireland and is one of the three branches of the Irish Defence Forces. Its base is in Haulbowline, County Cork. Though preceded by earlier mar ...

in 1988 renamed .

Notes, citations and references

Notes Citations References *Demerliac, Alain (1996) ''La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792''. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA). * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Swift, HMS Royal Navy ship names