HMS Searcher

Last updated April 05, 2019

Four ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Searcher:

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.

HMS Searcher (1562) was a brigantine built in 1562 and sold in 1564.
HMS Searcher (1918) was an S-class destroyer launched in 1918 and sold in 1938.
HMS Searcher (D40) was an Attacker-class escort carrier launched in 1942 and transferred under lend-lease. She was returned the US Navy in 1945 and sold into mercantile service.
HMS Searcher (L3058) was a Landing Ship, Tank launched as LST 3508 in 1944, renamed HMS Searcher in 1947 and broken up in 1949.

A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail. The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts.

The S class was a class of 67 destroyers ordered for the Royal Navy in 1917. They saw active service in the last months of the First World War and in the Russian and Irish Civil Wars during the early 1920s. Most were relegated to the reserve by the mid-1920s and subsequently scrapped under the terms of the London Naval Treaty. Eleven survivors saw much action during the Second World War.

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller powerful short-range attackers. They were originally developed in the late 19th century by Fernando Villaamil for the Spanish Navy as a defense against torpedo boats, and by the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, these "torpedo boat destroyers" (TBDs) were "large, swift, and powerfully armed torpedo boats designed to destroy other torpedo boats". Although the term "destroyer" had been used interchangeably with "TBD" and "torpedo boat destroyer" by navies since 1892, the term "torpedo boat destroyer" had been generally shortened to simply "destroyer" by nearly all navies by the First World War.

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.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

Related Research Articles

Five ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Serapis, after the god Serapis of Hellenistic Egypt.

Ten ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Triumph. Another was planned, but renamed before being launched:

Sixteen vessels and two shore establishments of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Phoenix, after the legendary phoenix bird.

Several ships of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Boxer, named after the competitor in a boxing match.

Thirteen ships of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Surprise or HMS Surprize, including:

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

The V and W class was an amalgam of six similar classes of destroyer built for the Royal Navy under the War Emergency Programme during the First World War and generally treated as one class. For their time they were among the most powerful and advanced ships of their type in the world, and set the trend for future British designs.

Five ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Herald:

Thirteen ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Shark after the shark:

Eight ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Iris after the Greek mythological figure Iris or after the flower by that name. A ninth was planned but renamed before entering service:

The Thornycroft type leader or Shakespeare class were a class of five destroyer leaders designed by John I. Thornycroft & Company and built by them at Woolston, Southampton for the Royal Navy towards the end of World War I. They were named after historical naval leaders. Only Shakespeare and Spenser were completed in time for wartime service. The other three were completed after the war, Broke and Keppel after being towed to Royal dockyards for completion, and two further ships - Saunders and Spragge - were cancelled. The function of a leader was to carry the flag staff of a destroyer flotilla, therefore they were enlarged to carry additional crew, offices and signalling equipment, allowing a fifth gun to be carried. These ships were very similar to the Admiralty type leader, but had broad, slab-sided funnels characteristic of Thornycroft designs.

The Aubrietia-class sloops were a class of twelve sloops built under the Emergency War Programme for the Royal Navy in World War I as part of the larger Flower class. They were also referred to as the "cabbage class", or "herbaceous borders". The Flowers were the first ships designed as minesweepers.

HMS Vindictive has been the name of several Royal Navy ships

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

Six ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Simoom, after the desert wind, the Simoom:

The 24 class was a class of minesweeping sloops. They were derived from the preceding Flower-class sloop, but designed to appear double-ended. Twenty-four ships to this design were ordered between December 1916 and April 1917 under the Emergency War Programme for the Royal Navy in World War I, although two of them were cancelled before launch. All were named after famous racehorses, but they were not named Racehorse class as the Admiralty realised that this could easily be confused in communications with the Racecourse class of paddle minesweepers, and they officially became the 24 class.

Two ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Windsor, after the English town of Windsor, Berkshire:

Thirty-nine vessels of the Royal Navy and its predecessors have borne the name Swallow, as has one dockyard craft, one naval vessel of the British East India Company, and at least two revenue cutters, all after the bird, the Swallow:

Two ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Aid:

Nine ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Dart, after the River Dart in Devon: