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 Fr ...
have been named HMS ''Irresistible''. A fifth was planned but later renamed:
* was 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 thi ...
ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...
launched in 1782 and broken up in 1806.
*
HMS ''Irresistible'' was a
prison ship
A prison ship, often more accurately described as a prison hulk, is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts, prisoners of war or civilian internees. While many nat ...
, launched as in 1787. She was captured by the French in 1801, and recaptured in the
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1 ...
in 1805. She was renamed HMS ''Irresistible'' in 1806 and was broken up in 1816.
* was an 80-gun screw propelled
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 ...
launched in 1859. She was used for harbour service from 1869 and was sold in 1894.
* was a launched in 1898 and sunk by a mine in 1915 in Gallipoli, Turkey.
*
HMS ''Irresistible'' was to have been an . She was renamed before being launched in 1950.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Irresistible, Hms
Royal Navy ship names