Spider has been the name of a number of vessels of the British Royal Navy;
At least two hired armed vessels also bore the name Spider:
Ten ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Serpent, after the synonym for snake, whilst another two were planned, and one appears to have been a spurious report:
Eight ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Espiegle
HMS Valeur was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, initially launched in 1754 as the Valeur for the French Navy, and classified by them as a corvette. The British captured her in 1759. In Royal Navy service she captured several merchant vessels and privateers before she was sold in 1764.
The Royal Navy purchased the Newcastle collier Ramillies in June 1804 and commissioned her as HMS Proselyte in September 1804, having converted her to a 28-gun sixth rate in July and August. Between 1806 and 1808 she was converted to a bomb vessel. She was crushed by ice and abandoned in 1808 at the island of Anholt while acting as a lightvessel.
Three ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Chub, or alternatively HMS Chubb, a name given to several types of fish, many in the family Cyprinidae:
During the period of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, there were two or three vessels known as His Majesty's hired armed cutter Active that served the British Royal Navy. The reason for the uncertainty in the number is that the size of the vessels raises the possibility that the first and second may have been the same vessel.
Three, and possibly four, vessels of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Placentia, after locations in Newfoundland, including Placentia Bay and the town of Placentia:
HMS Urgent was an iron screw troopship of the Royal Navy. She served her later years as a storeship and depot ship based in Jamaica.
HMS Patriot was a Dutch schuyt that the Royal Navy captured in 1808 and took into service. She captured several enemy vessels before she was converted to a water vessel in 1813. The Admiralty sold her in 1815.
HMS Delight was a British Royal Navy 16-gun brig-sloop of the Seagull class launched in June 1806, six months late. She grounded off Reggio Calabria in January 1808 and was burnt to prevent her being salvaged.
The hired armed ship Sir Thomas Troubridge or Thomas Troubridge, or Troubridge, or Trowbridge) was a ship that the Royal Navy put her under contract from 7 July 1804 to 9 May 1806. She was of 473 74⁄94 tons burthen (bm), and carried eighteen 6-pounder guns and eight 18-pounder carronades. She had a brief, astonishingly unremarkable career while under contract to the Navy.
The Royal Navy employed two vessels designated as His Majesty's Hired armed vessel Sir Thomas Pasley during the French Revolutionary Wars. The two vessels were named for Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley. The vessels are also sometimes described as cutters, but more generally as brigs. The Spanish captured the first Sir Thomas Pasley. The second had a brief, but highly productive, career that later led to her crew qualifying for the Naval General Service Medal. After she was returned to her owners in March 1802, she may have been wrecked in the Mediterranean that same year.
Diligente was a French Navy a Naïade-class corvette, launched in 1794 as a brig. HMS Crescent captured her in the Antilles in 1800. The British took her into service as a 14-gun transport and sold her in 1814.
HMS Venom was a captured in the Caribbean in 1794 that Admiral Sir John Jervis purchased. The Royal Navy commissioned her as a gunbrig under the command of Lieutenant Thomas H. Wilson. In March and April 1794, she participated in the capture of Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadeloupe. Jervis's expedition restored monarchist rule. The French counter-attacked and recaptured Guadeloupe on 2 June. Jervis and General Sir Charles Grey, the army commander, landed a force to recapture the island but the reinforced French garrison repulsed the British expedition, which withdrew.
The French gun-vessel Eclair was one of 20 chasse-marées built in 1785 in southern Brittany for use as service craft in harbour construction at Cherbourg. In 1793 Martin or Jacques Fabien converted ten of them into chaloupes-canonnières (gun-vessels). One of these received the name Eclair. Sir Richard Strachan's squadron captured her in 1795 in Cartaret Bay, and the Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Eclair. She then sailed to the West Indies where she was probably out of service by 1801. In 1802 she was hulked under the name HMS Safety. She then served as a prison ship at Jamaica around 1808 to 1810. She may have been sold at Tortola in 1817/18, but in 1841 or so was brought back into service there as a receiving hulk. She was broken up in 1879.
The French gunboat Légère was a felucca that the French Navy commissioned in August 1794 at Toulon. The Royal Navy captured her in September 1798 and took her into service as HMS Legere. The Royal Navy disposed of her by 1803.
Several ships have served the Royal Navy under the name HMS Integrity.
Numerous French privateers have borne the name Vengeur ("Avenger"):
One to three vessels may have served the British Royal Navy under the name Cacafogo, or Cacafoga, or Cacafuago, or Cacafuego, all being colloquial Spanish for "Spitshit" or "Shitfire".
This article includes data released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported UK: England & Wales Licence, by the National Maritime Museum, as part of the Warship Histories project.