Twelve ships and two shore establishments of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Defiance. Others have borne the name whilst serving as depot ships and tenders to the establishments:
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years War against the Kingdom of France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is known as the Senior Service.
- English ship Defiance (1588) was an 8-gun pinnace that took part in the action against the Spanish Armada in 1588.
- English ship Defiance (1590) was a 46-gun galleon built in 1590. She was rebuilt and reduced to 34 guns in 1614 and was sold in 1650.
- English ship Defiance (1652) was a 10-gun ship captured from the Parliamentarians by the Royalists in 1652 during the English Civil War. She foundered later in 1652.
- HMS Defiance (1666) was a 66-gun third rate ship of the line launched in 1666 and burned by accident in 1668.
- HMS Defiance (1671) was a sloop in service between 1671 and 1678.
- HMS Defiance (1675) was a 64-gun third rate launched in 1675. She was rebuilt in 1695, reduced to a fourth rate in 1716, hulked in 1743 and broken up in 1749.
- HMS Defiance (1744) was a 69-gun fourth rate launched in 1744 and sold in 1766.
- HMS Defiance (1766) was a sloop launched in 1766.
- HMS Defiance (1772) was a 64-gun third rate launched in 1772 and wrecked in 1780 off the Savannah River.
- HMS Defiance (1783) was a 74-gun third rate of launched in 1783. She was used as a prison ship from 1813 and was broken up in 1817.
- HMS Defiance (1794) was a 4-gun gunboat purchased in 1794 and sold in 1797.
- HMS Defiance (1861) was a 91-gun screw propelled second rate launched in 1861. She became the Navy's torpedo school ship in 1884 and was sold in 1931.
- HMS Defiance (shore establishment 1884) was the Royal Navy's torpedo school, established in 1884 in the second rate HMS Defiance (1861), and in subsequent ships that were renamed HMS Defiance. These included:
- HMS Defiance was the original school ship from 1884 until 1931.
- HMS Perseus was HMS Defiance II from 1904 until 1931.
- HMS Spartan was HMS Defiance II from 1921 until 1931.
- HMS Cleopatra was HMS Defiance III from 1922 until 1931.
- HMS Inconstant was HMS Defiance IV from 1922 until 1930 and HMS Defiance II from 1930 until 1956.
- HMS Andromeda was HMS Defiance from 1931 until 1956.
- HMS Vulcan was HMS Defiance III from 1931 until 1955.
HMS Defiance was the last wooden line-of-battle ship launched for the Royal Navy. She never saw service as a wooden line-of-battle ship. In 1884 she became a schoolship.
HMS Spartan was an Apollo-class cruiser of the Royal Navy constructed in 1891. The design was a variant of the Marathon-class cruiser. The ships had quick firing guns which were effective as a broadside, but less so when attempting to fire fore or aft.
HMS Cleopatra was a Royal Navy Comus-class screw corvette built in 1878.
The full-rigged pinnace was the larger of two types of vessel called a pinnace in use from the sixteenth century.
The Spanish Armada was a Habsburg Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed from A Coruña in late May 1588, under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, with the purpose of escorting an army from Flanders to invade England. Medina Sidonia was an aristocrat without naval command experience but was made commander by King Philip II. The aim was to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I and her establishment of Protestantism in England, to stop English interference in the Spanish Netherlands and to the harm caused to Spanish interests by English and Dutch privateering ships that interfered with Spanish interests in America.
Defiance was a 46-gun galleon of the English Tudor navy, launched in 1590.
The school moved ashore at Portsmouth in 1955, becoming a stone frigate. It was paid off in 1959.
Portsmouth is a port city in Hampshire, England, with a total population of 205,400 residents. The city of Portsmouth is nicknamed Pompey and is mainly built on Portsea Island, a flat, low-lying island measuring 24 square kilometres in area, just off the south-east coast of Hampshire. Uniquely, Portsmouth is the only island city in the United Kingdom, and is the only city whose population density exceeds that of London.
Informally, a stone frigate is a naval establishment on land. The term has its origin in Britain's Royal Navy after its use of Diamond Rock, off Martinique, as a 'sloop of war' to harass the French. The command of this first stone frigate was given to Commodore Hood's first lieutenant, James Wilkes Maurice, who, with cannon taken off the Commodore's ship, manned it with a crew of 120 until its capture by the French in the Battle of Diamond Rock in 1805.
- HMS Defiance (shore establishment 1970) was the Fleet Maintenance Base at HMNB Devonport between 1972 and 1979, and again between 1981 and 1994 when it was absorbed into the main base. One ship was renamed HMS Defiance whilst serving as the establishment's depot ship.
- HMS Forth was HMS Defiance from 1972 until 1978.
Her Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport, is the largest naval base in Western Europe and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Royal Navy.
HMS Forth, pennant number F04 later A187, was a submarine depot ship.
Also
- Defiance was a gunboat that the garrison at Gibraltar launched in June 1782 during the Great Siege of Gibraltar. She was one of 12. Each was armed with an 18-pounder gun, and received a crew of 21 men drawn from Royal Navy vessels stationed at Gibraltar. Brilliant provided Defiance's crew. [1]
The Great Siege of Gibraltar was an unsuccessful attempt by Spain and France to capture Gibraltar from the British during the American War of Independence.
HMS Brilliant was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Brilliant was first commissioned in July 1779 under the command of Captain John Ford.
