Nine ships of the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
have been named HMS ''Zephyr'' after
Zephyrus
In Greek mythology and religion, Zephyrus () (), also spelled in English as Zephyr (), is the god and personification of the West wind, one of the several wind gods, the Anemoi. The son of Eos (the goddess of the dawn) and Astraeus, Zephyrus is t ...
, the Greek god of the west wind:
*
HMS ''Zephyr'', originally the sloop HMS ''Merlin'', was captured by a French privateer in 1757. The British recaptured her in 1757 and the Royal Navy took her into service as ''Zephyr''. The French frigate ''Gracieuse'' recaptured her in August 1778; she was disarmed and sold at Toulon in January 1780 for
Lt44,200. The purchasers turned her into a privateer, which the British privateer ''Fame'' captured and burnt on 26 August 1780.
[Hepper (1994), p.53.]
* , launched in 1779, was a 14-gun
sloop. She was renamed ''Navy Transport'' in 1782, and then ''Dispatch'' in 1783 before being sold in 1798.
* , launched in 1795, was a 10-gun fireship. She was sold in 1808.
* , launched in 1809, was a 16-gun brig-sloop. She was sold in 1818 for breaking up.
* , launched in 1823, was a 6-gun packet-brig. She immediately became a Falmouth
packet. She was sold in 1836.
* , transferred into service in 1837, was a 3-gun wooden paddle picket. She was sold in 1865 for breaking up.
* , launched in 1873, was a 4-gun composite screw gunboat. She was sold in 1889 to become a salvage vessel. She was broken up in 1929.
* , launched in 1895, was a
destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...
. She was sold in 1920.
* , launched in 1943, was a
Z-class destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...
. She was broken up in 1958.
Battle honours
* Quebec 1759
* Martinique 1762
* Copenhagen 1801
* Baltic 1854
* Arctic 1945
Citations
References
*
*Demerliac, Alain (1996) ''La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792''. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zephyr, Hms
Royal Navy ship names