HMS Fox

Last updated September 22, 2021

Sixteen ships and two shore establishments of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Fox, after the fox.

Ships

HMS Fox (1650) was a 22-gun ship captured from the French in 1650 and expended as a fireship in 1656.
HMS Fox (1658) was a 14-gun ship captured in 1658 and expended as a fireship in 1666.
HMS Fox (1690) was an 8-gun fireship launched in 1690 and expended in 1692 at La Hougue.
HMS Fox (1699) was a 6-gun sloop launched in 1699 and wrecked later that year.
HMS Fox was a 24-gun sixth rate captured in 1705 and wrecked the following year.
HMS Fox was a 24-gun sixth rate launched in 1702 as HMS Nightingale. She was captured by the French in 1707, was recaptured later that year and renamed HMS Fox, rebuilt in 1727 and broken up in 1737.
HMS Fox (1740) was a 20-gun sixth rate launched in 1740 and foundered in 1745.
HMS Fox (1746) was a 24-gun sixth rate launched in 1746 and foundered in a hurricane in 1751.
HMS Fox (1766) was an 8-gun ketch launched in 1766, and still in the records in 1772.
HMS Fox (1773) was a 28-gun sixth rate launched in 1773, captured by the Americans in 1777, recaptured a month later, then captured by the French in 1778. She ran aground in March 1779 on Pointe St Jacques on Rhuys Peninsula and could not be refloated.
HMS Fox (1780) was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1780 and broken up in 1816.
HM hired armed cutter Fox, of twelve 9-pounder guns, was hired on 27 March 1793 and sunk in action at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1797).^[1]
HMS Fox (1799) was a 14-gun schooner purchased in 1799 and wrecked later that year off Dog Island, Apalachee Bay, Florida. There were no lives lost despite the fact that the crew had to wait for 33 days with little food and water before they were rescued.^[2]
HMS Fox (1829) was a 46-gun fifth rate launched in 1829, converted to a screw frigate in 1856, and broken up in 1882.
HMS Fox (1893) was an Astraea-class second class cruiser launched in 1893 and sold in 1920.
HMS Fox (A320) was a survey vessel launched in 1967 and sold in 1989.

Shore establishments

HMS Fox (shore establishment) was the Navy's base at Lerwick, Shetland between 1939 and 1945.
HMS Fox II was the Coastal Forces Base at Lerwick between 1942 and 1944.

Battle honours

Ships named Fox have earned the following battle honours:^{[note 1]}

Gabbard, 1653
Orfordness, 1666
Barfleur, 1692
Genoa, 1795
St Vincent, 1797
Egypt, 1801
Burma, 1852-3

Citations and references

Citations

↑ Winfield (2008), p. 387.
↑ Grocott (1997), p. 78.
↑ "Battle Honours of RN ships & Naval Air Squadrons". Royal Navy Research Archive.

↑ In the Royal Navy, and other Commonwealth navies that follow the traditions of the RN, battle honours awarded to a ship are inherited by subsequent ships to bear the same name, and are displayed on the ship's honours board.^[3]

Related Research Articles

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Eighteen ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Eagle, after the eagle.

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Seven ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Solebay after the battle of Solebay on 7 June 1672, the first battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

Fourteen ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Roebuck after a small deer native to the British Isles:

Sixteen ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Success, whilst another was planned:

Three ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Lichfield, after the town of Lichfield in Staffordshire.

Sixteen ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Wolf or HMS Woolf, after the mammal the wolf:

Six ships and one shore establishment of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Dartmouth, after the port of Dartmouth, whilst another two were planned:

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Eleven ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Firebrand.

Twenty-two ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Falcon. They are named after an exceptionally fast bird of prey.

Twenty ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Swan, or the archaic HMS Swann, probably after the bird, the Swan:

Twenty-two ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Fortune:

References

Grocott, Terence (1997). Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras. London: Chatham. ISBN 1861760302.
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.

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.

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[FOOTNOTEWinfield2008387-1] Winfield (2008), p. 387.

[FOOTNOTEGrocott199778-2] Grocott (1997), p. 78.

[3] "Battle Honours of RN ships & Naval Air Squadrons". Royal Navy Research Archive.

[honours-4] In the Royal Navy, and other Commonwealth navies that follow the traditions of the RN, battle honours awarded to a ship are inherited by subsequent ships to bear the same name, and are displayed on the ship's honours board.^[3]

[1]

[2]

[note 1]

[3]