Five major warships and one
shore establishment
A stone frigate is a naval establishment on land.
"Stone frigate" is an informal term that has its origin in Britain's Royal Navy after its use of Diamond Rock, an island off Martinique, as a 'sloop of war' to harass the First French Empire, ...
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 been named HMS ''Thunderer :''
* 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 third r ...
launched in 1760. Battle honour: Achille'' 1761'. She was wrecked in 1780.
* was a 74-gun third-rate launched in 1783; Battle honours:
First of June 1794,
St. Lucia 1796 and
Trafalgar 1805. Broken up 1814.
* was an 84-gun
second-rate launched in 1831, which fought in
Syria 1840. She was used as a target from 1863, was renamed HMS ''Nettle'' in 1870, and was finally sold in 1901.
* was a
''Devastation''-class ironclad - the world's first mastless battleships - launched in 1872 and sold in 1909
* was an
''Orion''-class battleship launched in 1911, which fought at
Jutland 1916, and was broken up in 1927.
* HMS ''Thunderer'' was the name given to the
Royal Naval Engineering College
The Royal Naval Engineering College was a specialist establishment for the training of Royal Navy engineers. It was founded as Keyham College in 1880, new buildings were opened in Manadon, Devon in 1940 and the old college site at Keyham close ...
, located at
Keyham, and later
Manadon
Manadon is a suburb of Plymouth in the English county of Devon.
It has two primary schools, St Boniface's Catholic College (secondary comprehensive), and is home to the Manadon interchange, on the A38 road.
Manadon Park, a development of varyi ...
. The college was founded in 1880, later commissioned as HMS ''Thunderer'' in 1946, and finally paid off in 1995. The land at Manadon is now the site of a housing development.
Additional minor war vessel, and cancelled uses of the name:
* HMS Thunderer (1776) was a 14-gun
ketch-rigged
'Radeau' gun-raft, which was awarded the Battle Honour
Lake Champlain 1776, but was lost the following year.
* HMS ''Thunderer'' (1818) was to have been a 74-gun third-rate, but she was renamed
HMS ''Talavera'' in 1817, prior to her launch in 1818
* was to have been a
''Lion''-class battleship. She was ordered in 1939, but work was suspended in 1942, and she was finally cancelled in 1944
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thunderer
Royal Navy ship names