HMS Asp

Last updated October 09, 2021

Five vessels of Britain's Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Asp, named after the Asp, which in antiquity referred to any one of several venomous snake species found in the Nile region.

HMS Asp (1797) was an Acute-classgunbrig (ex-GB No.5), disposed of in 1803.
HMS Asp (1808) was the French Navy's corvette Serpent, under the command of Lieutenant de vaisseau Paul de Lamanon, when HMS Acasta captured her in 1808 off La Guaira, Venezuela. Rear-Admiral the Honourable Sir Alexander Cochrane provisionally named her Pert, but as there was already a brig HMS Pert, the Admiralty named her HMS Asp. The Royal Navy commissioned her as 16-gun sloop and disposed of her in 1814. She then made four voyages as a whaler, and wrecked in December 1828 on the fifth voyage.
HMS Asp (1826) was a cutter that the Royal Navy purchased in 1826 and sold in 1829.
HMS Asp (1837) was a paddle steamer packet of 112 tons that the Admiralty acquired from the Post Office in 1837 and disposed of in 1881.
HMS Asp (1890) was a tug in service 1891-1947

This article includes a list of ships with the same or similar names. If an internal link for a specific ship led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended ship article, if one exists.

Related Research Articles

Eight vessels of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Bermuda, after the island of Bermuda.

HMS Reindeer was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, built by Samuel & Daniel Brent at Rotherhithe and was launched in 1804. She was built of fir, which made for more rapid construction at the expense of durability. Reindeer fought in the Napoleonic Wars before succumbing in 1814 to the guns of USS Wasp during the War of 1812.

Two ships of the Royal Navy have been called HMS Sabine after the ancient Italian tribe:

Four ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Iphigenia, after Iphigenia, a figure in Greek mythology:

Nine ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Zephyr after Zephyrus, the Greek god of the west wind:

Seven ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Victor:

Five ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Pike, after the Northern pike, a species of fish:

Several vessels of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Nimble.

Five ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Shearwater after the shearwater, a seabird:

Several ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Doterel, after the wading bird more often spelled "dotterel":

Ten ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Renard, or HMS Reynard, after the French for fox, and the anthropomorphic figure of Reynard:

Twelve ships of the French Navy have borne the name Entreprenant and four Entreprenante, after the French word for "enterprising"

At least six vessels of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Netley, named for the village of Netley.

HMS Wanderer may refer to one of seven Royal Navy ships of that name.

The French gun-vessel Eclair was one of 20 chasse-marées built in 1785 in southern Brittany for use as service craft in harbour construction at Cherbourg. In 1793 Martin or Jacques Fabien converted ten of them into chaloupes-canonnières (gun-vessels). One of these received the name Eclair. Sir Richard Strachan's squadron captured her in 1795 in Cartaret Bay, and the Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Eclair. She then sailed to the West Indies where she was probably out of service by 1801. In 1802 she was hulked under the name HMS Safety. She then served as a prison ship at Jamaica around 1808 to 1810. She may have been sold at Tortola in 1817/18, but in 1841 or so was brought back into service there as a receiving hulk. She was broken up in 1879.

Serpent was a French navy brig of the Palinure class, launched in 1807 at Paimbeouf (Nantes) as Rivolli, but renamed. HMS Acasta captured her in 1808 in the Caribbean and the British Royal Navy took her into service there as HMS Pert but renamed her Asp. The navy disposed of her in 1814. She then made five voyages as a whaler, and wrecked in December 1828 on her sixth voyage.

Three ships of the British Royal Navy have been named Prospero for the Shakespearean character Prospero:

Four ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Pert:

Several vessels of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Redridge:

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.