HMS Diamond

Several Royal Navy ships have been named HMS Diamond.

• English ship Diamond (1652), a 50-gun ship launched at Deptford in 1652 and captured by France in 1693.
• HMS Diamond (1708), a fifth-rate 50 gun ship launched at Blackwall Yard in 1708 and rebuilt at Deptford Dockyard in 1722, sold in 1744.
• HMS Diamond (1741), a fifth-rate launched at Limehouse in 1741 and sold in 1756.
• HMS Diamond (1774), a fifth-rate launched at Hull in 1774 and sold in 1784.
• HMS Diamond (1794), a fifth-rate launched at Deptford in 1794 and broken up in 1812.
• HMS Diamond (1816), a fifth-rate launched at Chatham in 1816 and broken up following a serious fire at Portsmouth in 1827.
• HMS Diamond (1848), a sixth-rate frigate launched in 1848. She was used as a training ship and renamed Joseph Straker between 1866 and 1868, and sold in 1885.
• HMS Diamond (1874), a 14-gun Amethyst-class corvette launched in 1874 and sold in 1889.
• HMS Diamond (1904), a Topaze-class cruiser built by Cammell Laird, launched in 1904 and scrapped in 1921
• HMS Diamond (H22), a D-class destroyer launched in 1931 and lost in action in 1941.
• HMS Diamond (D35), a Daring-class destroyer launched in 1950 and sold in 1980.
• HMS Diamond (D34), a Type 45 destroyer which began construction in 2005 and was launched on 27 November 2007.

Battle honours

Ships named Diamond have earned the following battle honours:

• Armada, 1588
• Kentish Knock, 1652
• Portland, 1653
• Gabbard, 1653
• Scheveningen, 1653
• Lowestoft, 1665
• Four Days' Battle, 1666
• Orfordness, 1666
• Sole Bay, 1672
• Schooneveld, 1673
• Texel, 1673
• Crimea, 1854–55
• Spartivento, 1940
• Mediterranean, 1941
• Malta Convoys, 1941
• Greece, 1941

See also

• Diamond Rock, a rock off Martinique commissioned as HMS Diamond Rock in 1804 and recaptured by the French in 1805.
• HMS Fort Diamond was a six-gun sloop commissioned in 1804 in Martinique to serve as a tender to Diamond Rock and lost to a French privateer in June of that year.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN   978-1-86176-281-8.