Several ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Dragon.
Dreadnought was a 41-gun galleon of the Tudor navy, built by Mathew Baker and launched in 1573. Like HMS Dreadnought of 1906, she was a radical innovation over contemporary ships. When John Hawkins became Treasurer of the Navy in 1577, he had sailed all over the world, and his ideas contributed to the production of a new race-built series of galleons—of which Dreadnought was the second, following Foresight of 1570—without the high forecastle and aftcastle prevalent in earlier galleons. These "marvels of marine design" could reputedly "run circles around the clumsier Spanish competition."
HMS Magnanime was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 October 1780 at Deptford Dockyard. She belonged to the Intrepid-class designed by Sir John Williams and later was razeed into a 44 gun frigate.
HMS Dragon was a 74-gun Bellona-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 4 March 1760 at Deptford Dockyard.
HMS Temple was a 68-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 3 November 1758 at Blaydes Yard in Hull.
HMS Cambridge was an 80-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Deptford Dockyard to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment as amended in 1750, and launched on 21 October 1755.
HMS Montague was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 28 August 1779 at Chatham Dockyard.
HMS Dragon was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 2 April 1798 at Rotherhithe. She was designed by Sir William Rule, and was the only ship built to her draught.
HMS Armada was a Royal Navy 74-gun third-rate ship of the line, launched in 1810. She was the first ship to carry the name. After a relatively undistinguished career, Armada was sold out of the Navy in 1863 and broken up at Marshall's ship breaking yard in Plymouth.
HMS Royal Charles was a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, designed and built by Sir Anthony Deane at Portsmouth Dockyard, where she was launched and completed by his successor as Master Shipwright, Daniel Furzer, in March 1673. She was one of only three Royal Navy ships to be equipped with the Rupertinoe naval gun.
HMS Dragon was a 38-gun fourth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, built by the Master Shipwright Henry Goddard at Chatham and launched in 1647. She was the first frigate to be built at Chatham.
President was a 38-gun fourth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, originally built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England by Peter Pett I at Deptford Dockyard, and launched in 1650.
Coronation was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, built at Portsmouth Dockyard as part of the '30 great ships programme' of 1677, and launched in 1685. She was lost in a storm off Rame Head, Cornwall on 3 September 1691 and is designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
HMS Anne was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, built by Phineas Pett II at Chatham Dockyard and launched in 1678. Commissioned in 1687, she was burnt to avoid capture, having been run aground after being dismasted during the Battle of Beachy Head in the Nine Years' War. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
HMS Ipswich was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Harwich on 19 April 1694.
HMS Barfleur was a 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Deptford Dockyard on 10 August 1697.
HMS Newcastle was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Sheerness Dockyard and launched on 10 March 1704.
HMS Ormonde was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Woolwich Dockyard to the 1706 Establishment of dimensions, and launched on 18 October 1711.
HMS Warwick was a 60-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the 1719 Establishment at Plymouth by P. Lock. The keel was laid down on 1 April 1730, and the ship was launched on 25 October 1733, and completed on 24 August 1734.
Brian Lavery, is a British naval historian, author, and Curator Emeritus at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, England.
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