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 borne the name HMS ''Termagant'', after

Termagant In the Middle Ages, Termagant or Tervagant was the name given to a god which European Christians believed Muslims worshipped. The word is also used in modern English to mean a violent, overbearing, turbulent, brawling, quarrelsome woman; a virago ...

, a god that Medieval Europeans believed Muslims worshipped, and that later came to be popularised by

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

to mean a bullying person: * was a 26-gun

sixth rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a sixth-rate was the designation for small warships mounting between 20 and 28 carriage-mounted guns on a single deck, sometimes with smaller guns on the upper works and ...

launched in 1780, reduced to an 18-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 ...

in 1782, and sold in 1795. * was an 18-gun

launched in 1796 and sold in 1819. * was a 28-gun sixth rate launched in 1822. She was renamed in 1824. when she became a survey ship. She was sold in 1862. * was a 3-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 ...

, previously built as a . She was launched in 1838, and sold in 1845. * was a wooden screw

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

, launched in 1847 and sold in 1867. * was a , originally built for the

Turkish Navy The Turkish Naval Forces ( tr, ), or Turkish Navy ( tr, ) is the naval warfare service branch of the Turkish Armed Forces. The modern naval traditions and customs of the Turkish Navy can be traced back to 10 July 1920, when it was establi ...

but taken over as HMS ''Narborough'', later renamed HMS ''Termagant'' and launched in 1915. She was sold in 1921 and broken up in 1923. * was a launched in 1943. She was converted to a Type 16 frigate between 1952 and 1953, and was broken up in 1965.

References

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