Four 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 ...

have been named HMS ''Formidable'' with a fifth, the French ''Formidable'', renamed HMS ''Ham'' after being captured and recommissioned; a sixth has been announced: * HMS ''Ham'' (1759) was the 80-gun

second rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a second-rate was a ship of the line which by the start of the 18th century mounted 90 to 98 guns on three gun decks; earlier 17th-century second rates had fewer guns ...

captured from the French at the

Battle of Quiberon Bay The Battle of Quiberon Bay (known as ''Bataille des Cardinaux'' in French) was a decisive naval engagement during the Seven Years' War. It was fought on 20 November 1759 between the Royal Navy and the French Navy in Quiberon Bay, off the coast ...

in 1759. Broken up in 1768. * was a second rate; initially of 90 guns, later increased to 98; launched in 1777. She fought at the Battle of Ushant and the

Battle of the Saintes The Battle of the Saintes (known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique), also known as the Battle of Dominica, was an important naval battle in the Caribbean between the British and the French that took place 9–12 April 1782. The Brit ...

, was converted to a 74-gun

third rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Years of experience proved that the third ...

in 1813, and broken up later that year. * was an 84-gun second rate launched in 1825. She was lent as a

training ship A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is mostly used to describe ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house class ...

in 1869 and was sold in 1906. * was a

predreadnought Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built between the mid- to late- 1880s and 1905, before the launch of in 1906. The pre-dreadnought ships replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. Built from steel, protec ...

battleship launched in 1898 and torpedoed and sunk in 1915. * was an launched in 1939 and sold for scrap in 1953. * HMS ''Formidable'' will be a

Type 31 frigate The Type 31 frigate or Inspiration class, and formerly known as the Type 31e frigate or General Purpose Frigate (GPF), is a planned class of frigate intended to enter service with the United Kingdom's Royal Navy in the 2020s alongside the subm ...

Battle honours

Ships named ''Formidable'' have earned the following

battle honours A battle honour is an award of a right by a government or sovereign to a military unit to emblazon the name of a battle or operation on its flags ("colours"), uniforms or other accessories where ornamentation is possible. In European military t ...

: * The Saints 1782 * Matapan 1941 * Crete 1941 * Mediterranean 1941 * North Africa 1942–43 *

Sicily 1943 (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

* Salerno 1943 * Norway 1944 * Okinawa 1945 * Japan 1945

Battle honours

See also