A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.
Several ships of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Boxer, named after the competitor in a boxing match.
Six ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Biter. Another was planned:
HMS Vixen was an armoured composite gunboat, the only ship of her class, and the third ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name. She was the first Royal Navy vessel to have twin propellers.
Admiral Sir Robert Spencer Robinson, was a British naval officer, who served as two five-year terms as Controller of the Navy from February 1861 to February 1871, and was therefore responsible for the procurement of warships at a time when the Royal Navy was changing over from unarmoured wooden ships to ironclads. As a result of the Captain disaster, Robinson was not given a third term as Controller. Robinson has been "described as having one of the best brains of any Victorian admiral".
HMS Beagle was a wooden-hulled Arrow-class second-class screw gunvessel launched in 1854 and sold in 1863. She was the third vessel of the Royal Navy to use the name.
HMS Viper was an armoured iron gunboat, the only ship of her class, and the fourteenth ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.
The Cruizer class was a class of six 17-gun wooden screw sloops built for the Royal Navy between 1852 and 1856.
Eleven ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Plover, after the species of bird, the Plover:
HMS Mullett was a Royal Navy 5-gun Philomel-class wooden screw gunvessel launched in 1860. She served on the coast of West Africa and on the North America and West Indies Station before being sold in 1872 at Hong Kong for mercantile use. As the sailing ship Formosa she sailed in the Far East before being converted to a magazine in Melbourne.
HMS Sparrowhawk was a Vigilant-class second-class despatch/gunvessel launched on 9 February 1856 at Limehouse, England and served at various stations in the Far East. By the spring of 1865, her rig was a converted to that of a three-masted barque. She was sold in 1872, converted to a sailing barque in mercantile service, and was later a coal lighter in Australia.
The Philomel-class gunvessel was a class of wooden-hulled screw-driven second-class gunvessels built for the Royal Navy between 1859 and 1867, of which 26 were ordered but only 20 completed. They had a mixed history, with some serving for as little as 5 years, and others surviving into the 1880s. Two of the class were sold and used as Arctic exploration vessels, both eventually being lost in the ice.
Intrepid-class gunvessels were a class of six Royal Navy first-class wooden gunvessels built in 1855-56. They were rated as sloops from 1859 to 1862, and were scrapped by 1865. Victor was sold to the Confederate States of America as the raider CSS Rappahannock, but she was interned by the French at Calais and never fulfilled her intended function.
HMS Waterwitch was one of only three armoured gunboats built for the Royal Navy. Uniquely, she was powered by Ruthven's "hydraulic propeller", making her the first ship to employ waterjets. She was launched in 1866 and conducted comparative trials with her two sister ships. She was not employed operationally and was sold in 1890.
The Medina-class gunboat was a class of 12 Royal Navy Rendel gunboats mounting three 6.3-inch guns, built between 1876 and 1877. Flat-iron gunboats were normally built without masts or rigging, but the Medinas carried a full barquentine rig. Their robust iron hulls meant that they lingered on as diving tenders, barges and lighters, with five of them working into the 1920s. The hull of Medway lies in shallow water in Bermuda and is visible on satellite imagery.
HMS Wasp was an Archer type sloop ordered on 25 April 1847 from Deptford Dockyard. Two references stipulate that Parthian, ordered with Archer the year prior was renamed Wasp when ordered as a sloop. However, Parthian remained on the books at Deptford, as a Rifleman type gunvessel until cancelled in June 1849. Therefore Wasp was a new build. She served on many different stations during her career, including West Coast of Africa, in the Mediterranean and Black Sea during the Russian War of 1854 - 55, on the South East Coast of America, Cape of Good Hope where she went aground twice and the East Indies before being sold for breaking in December 1869.
