Sixteen ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Pelican, after the bird, while another was planned:
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.
Pelicans are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterised by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before swallowing. They have predominantly pale plumage, the exceptions being the brown and Peruvian pelicans. The bills, pouches, and bare facial skin of all species become brightly coloured before the breeding season. The eight living pelican species have a patchy global distribution, ranging latitudinally from the tropics to the temperate zone, though they are absent from interior South America and from polar regions and the open ocean.
- Pelican was an 18-gun privateer. She was part of Sir Francis Drake's global circumnavigation expedition in 1577 and was renamed Golden Hind in 1578. It is unlikely that she was ever commissioned in the Royal Navy.
- English ship Pelican (1626) was a ship captured in 1626 and sold in 1629.
- English ship Pelican (1646) was a 10-gun ship in Royalist service between 1646 and 1648 during the English Civil War.
- English ship Pelican (1650) was a 38-gun ship launched in 1650 and burnt by accident in 1656.
- HMS Pelican (1757) was a 16-gun sloop, previously in civilian service as St George. She was purchased in 1757 and sold in 1763.
- HMS Pelican (1775) was a 10-gun schooner, originally a French privateer. She was captured in 1775 and assigned to harbour duties in 1776. She was renamed Earl of Denbigh in 1777 and sank in 1787.
- HMS Pelican was the American Bermuda-built sloop Adriana of 150 tons (bm), that the British captured in 1777 and took into service to replace her predecessor.
- HMS Pelican (1777) was a 24-gun sixth-rate Porcupine-class post ship launched in 1777. She foundered in 1781.
- HMS Pelican (1781) was a 16-gun brig-sloop, originally the French privateer Frédéric. [1] HMS Emerald captured her in 1781; Pelican was sold in 1783.
- HMS Pelican (1795) was an 18-gun sloop launched in 1795 and sold in 1806.
- HMS Pelican was a 16-gun brig-sloop, previously the French navy brig Voltigeur. She was captured in 1806 by HMS Pique and was sold in 1812.
- HMS Pelican (1812) was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched in 1812. She was reassigned as a customs watchvessel in 1847 and was renamed WV 29 in 1863, finally being sold in 1865.
- HMS Pelican (1860) was a wooden Camelion-class screw sloop launched in 1860 and sold into civilian service in 1867 and renamed Hawk. She was resold to the Portuguese Navy and renamed Infanta Dom Henrique.
- HMS Pelican (1877) was a composite screw Osprey-class sloop launched in 1877. She was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company as a supply ship in 1901 and was scuttled in 1953.
- HMS Pelican (1906) was tender, previously the War Department vessel Sir J. Jones. She was transferred to the Royal Navy in 1906. She was renamed HMS Petulant in 1916 and was sold in 1927.
- HMS Pelican (1916) was an M-class destroyer launched in 1916 and sold in 1921 and broken up in 1924.
- HMS Pelican (L86) was an Egret-class sloop launched in 1938 and broken up in 1958.
- HMS Pelican was to have been a survey vessel, but she was cancelled in 1967.
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. The commission, also known as a letter of marque, empowers the person to carry on all forms of hostility permissible at sea by the usages of war, including attacking foreign vessels during wartime and taking them as prizes. Historically, captured ships were subject to condemnation and sale under prize law, with the proceeds divided between the privateer sponsors, shipowners, captains and crew. A percentage share usually went to the issuer of the commission. Since robbery under arms was once common to seaborne trade, all merchant ships were already armed. During war, naval resources were auxiliary to operations on land so privateering was a way of subsidizing state power by mobilizing armed ships and sailors.
Sir Francis Drake was an English sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer and explorer of the Elizabethan era. Drake carried out the second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580, and was the first to complete the voyage as captain while leading the expedition throughout the entire circumnavigation. With his incursion into the Pacific Ocean, he claimed what is now California for the English and inaugurated an era of conflict with the Spanish on the western coast of the Americas, an area that had previously been largely unexplored by western shipping.
Golden Hind was an English galleon best known for her privateering circumnavigation of the globe between 1577 and 1580, captained by Sir Francis Drake. She was originally known as Pelican, but was renamed by Drake mid-voyage in 1578, in honour of his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton, whose crest was a golden 'hind'. Hatton was one of the principal sponsors of Drake's world voyage. One full-sized, still sailable reconstruction containing original pieces of the galleon exists in London, on the south bank of the Thames.
