Three 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 ''Unique'':
* was the French 10-gun
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 ...
''Harmonie'', captured from the French in 1804, and sunk while or after being recaptured by a 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 ...
in 1806.
*
HMS ''Unique'' was HMS ''Netley'', captured by the French in 1806, and used by them as the 21-gun privateer ''Duquesne''. In 1807 HMS ''Blonde'' captured ''Duquesne'', which the Royal Navy returned to service as the 12-gun HMS ''Unique''. She was expended in an unsuccessful
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 ...
attack in 1809.
* was a
U-class submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
launched in 1940 and sunk in 1942.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unique, Hms
Royal Navy ship names