Fifteen 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 ''Ranger'' * was a 24-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 ...

, previously 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 ...

''Deux Couronnes''. She was captured in 1747 by . * 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 and sold in 1783. * was a cutter purchased in 1779. The Admiralty renamed her HMS ''Pigmy'' in 1781 and had her converted into a sloop. It sold her in 1784. * was the 14-gun revenue cutter ''Rose'', launched in 1776, that the Royal Navy purchased in 1787, and that the French captured in 1794. The British recaptured her (twice) in 1797 and renamed her HMS ''Venturer''. She was sold in 1803. * was a 16-gun sloop launched in 1794. The French captured and burned her in 1805. * was a 16-gun cutter launched in 1806 and purchased by the Navy. She was renamed HMS ''Pigmy'' later in 1806 and grounded and was captured in 1807. * was an 18-gun sloop launched in 1807 and broken up in 1814. * was a 28-gun sixth rate launched in 1820 and sold in 1832. * was an 8-gun packet brig launched in 1835, hulked in 1860 and sold in 1867. * was a wood screw

gunboat 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 1859 and sold in 1869. * was an composite screw gunvessel launched in 1880. She was sold to the Liverpool Salvage Association as a salvage vessel in 1892, doing contract salvage work for the Admiralty in both World Wars, as well as having an extensive civilian career. * was a launched in 1895 and sold in 1920. * HMS ''Ranger'' was to have been a . She was renamed in 1942 before being launched in 1944. * is an , launched in 1986, completed in 1988, and currently in service.

His Majesty's hired armed vessels

A series of hired armed vessels were hired by the Royal Navy; * A sloop named ''Ranger'' was temporarily hired in 1718 to take part in the successful hunt for the notorious

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

Blackbeard Edward Teach (alternatively spelled Edward Thatch, – 22 November 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was an English Piracy, pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's Thirteen Colonies, North American colon ...

, but does not appear to have ever formally been a part of the Navy. * In July 1809 the Royal Navy hired ten open boats, all between 14 and 16 tons ( bm), for less than a month to serve as pilot boats for the unfortunate

Walcheren Campaign The Walcheren Campaign ( ) was an unsuccessful British expedition to the Netherlands in 1809 intended to open another front in the Austrian Empire's struggle with France during the War of the Fifth Coalition. Sir John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham ...

. One of these boats was named ''Ranger''.Winfield (2008), p. 395. * Lastly, in January 1810, the RN hired the ship ''Ranger'', of 16 guns, for several weeks.Winfield (2008), p. 395. This may have been the ''Ranger'', of 326 tons (bm), Deanham, master.

British Revenue vessel

* HMS ''Ranger'' was a revenue cutter operating off

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

. In April 1821, under the command of Captain Sayer, she seized about 400 tubs of Geneva from a smuggling vessel, but was lost in a gale in October 1822 off

Happisburgh Happisburgh () is a village civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is on the coast, to the east of a north–south road, the B1159 from Bacton on the coast to Stalham. It is a nucleated village. The nearest substantial to ...

, with no attempt being made by locals to rescue the crew. Happishburgh, Losses at Sea
/ref>

In fiction

* A fictitious

Polaris Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude that ...

captured in the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

film '' The Spy Who Loved Me'' was also named HMS ''Ranger''.

Citations

References

* * __NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Ranger, Hms Royal Navy ship names