The Royal Navy has used the name Comet no fewer than 18 times:
HMS Liverpool was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1758, she saw active service in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. She was wrecked in Jamaica Bay, near New York, in 1778.
HMS Fame was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, in service during the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War.
HMS Raisonnable was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, named after the ship of the same name captured from the French in 1758. She was built at Chatham Dockyard, launched on 10 December 1768 and commissioned on 17 November 1770 under the command of Captain Maurice Suckling, Horatio Nelson's uncle. Raisonnable was built to the same lines as HMS Ardent, and was one of the seven ships forming the Ardent class of 1761. Raisonnable was the first ship in which Nelson served.
Two ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Raisonnable, French for "reasonable":
Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Denis, 1st Baronet was an English naval officer and Member of Parliament.
Raisonnable was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1755.
HMS Seahorse was a 24-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1748. She is perhaps most famous as the ship on which a young Horatio Nelson served as a midshipman. She also participated in four battles off the coast of India between 1781 and 1783. The Royal Navy sold her in 1784 and she then became the mercantile Ravensworth. She made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC) between 1786 and 1788. In 1789, she was sold to the French East India Company which had her refitted and renamed her Citoyen. In 1793 the French Navy purchased her and used her as a frigate. She was last listed in 1801.
HMS Orford was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment at Woolwich Dockyard, and launched in 1749.
HMS Dorsetshire was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Chatham Dockyard to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment, amended in 1754, and launched on 13 December 1757.
The Burford class were three 68-gun third-rate ships of the line designed for the Royal Navy by Sir Joseph Allin. The Burford ships were almost the last "70-gun" ships designed by Allin. They were built to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment as amended in 1754.
HMS Lizard was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, in service from 1757 to 1828. Named after the Lizard, a peninsula in southern Cornwall, she was a broad-beamed and sturdy vessel designed for lengthy periods at sea. Her crewing complement was 200 and, when fully equipped, she was armed with 24 nine-pounder cannons, supported by four three-pounders and twelve 1⁄2-pounder swivel guns. Despite her sturdy build, she was plagued with maintenance problems and had to be repeatedly removed from service for repair.
HMS Actaeon was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Her crewing complement was 200 and, when fully equipped, she was armed with 24 nine-pounder cannons, supported by four three-pounders and twelve 1⁄2-pounder swivel guns.
HMS Active was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate sailing frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1758. She was one of the captors of the Spanish ship Hermione. After Hermione surrendered, her captors found that she carried a large cargo of gold and silver that would lead to the greatest single amount of prize money awarded to the crew of a British warship.
HMS Racehorse was an 18-gun ship-rigged sloop of the Royal Navy. Originally the French ship Marquis de Vaudreuil, she was captured by the Royal Navy in 1757 and refitted as a survey vessel for the 1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole. Renamed HMS Thunder in 1775, she was captured back by the French in 1778.
Comte de Maurepas was a common name for French vessels in the 18th century. The name comes from that of the French statesman Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, Count of Maurepas.
The action of 29 April 1758 was a naval engagement fought in the Bay of Biscay near Brest between a British Royal Navy squadron and a single French Navy ship of the line during the Seven Years' War. In an attempt to support the garrison of Louisbourg, who were facing an impending siege, the French Atlantic Fleet sent a number of squadrons and ships to sea during the spring of 1758. To intercept these ships, Royal Navy squadrons maintained a close blockade of their main port at Brest. In April a British squadron including HMS Intrepid, HMS Dorsetshire and HMS Achilles was cruising off the French Biscay Coast when a lone sail was sighted to the southwest. Dorsetshire, commanded by Captain Peter Denis was sent to investigate, discovering the ship to be the French ship of the line Raisonnable sailing to Louisbourg. In a fierce battle, Dorsetshire managed to inflict heavy casualties on the French ship and force her captain, Louis-Armand-Constantin de Rohan, to surrender.
HMS Mecklenburgh was a 6-gun single-masted cutter of the Royal Navy, purchased in 1763 during the last days of the Seven Years' War with France and assigned to coastal patrol offshore from Sussex. After ten years' service she was partly dismantled and sunk to form part of a breakwater in the port of Sheerness.
HMS Stork was a 10-gun Alderney-class sloop of the Royal Navy which saw active service during the Seven Years' War. Launched in 1757, she was assigned to the Navy's Jamaica Station until August 1758 when she was captured by the French. She remained in French hands until being disarmed in 1759 and removed from service in 1760.
Great Britain 
