Eleven ships and a

shore establishment A stone frigate is a naval establishment on land. 'Stone frigate' is an informal term which has its origin in Britain's Royal Navy (RN), after its use of Diamond Rock, an island off Martinique, as a ' sloop of war' to harass the French in ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

have borne the name HMS ''Cormorant'', after the

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

, the

cormorant Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) ado ...

: * was a 16-gun

fireship A fire ship or fireship is a large wooden vessel set on fire to be used against enemy ships during a ramming attack or similar maneuver. Fireships were used to great effect against wooden ships throughout naval military history up until the adv ...

, previously the French ''Marchault''. She was captured in 1757 and sold in 1762. * was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1776. She may have been at the

Siege of Pondicherry (1778) The siege of Pondicherry was the first military action on the Indian subcontinent following the declaration of war between Great Britain and France in the American Revolutionary War. A British force besieged the French-controlled port of Pondich ...

. The French captured her in 1781 off

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and took her into service as ''Cormoran''. She apparently accompanied Admiral de Grasse's fleet to the Chesapeake, however, her subsequent fate is unknown. * was a 12-gun

brig-sloop During the 18th and 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship of the Royal Navy with a single gun deck that carried up to 18 guns. The rating system of the Royal Navy covered all vessels with 20 or more guns; thus, the term encompassed all ...

, previously the American ''Rattlesnake''. She was captured in 1781, renamed HMS ''Rattlesnake'' in 1783, and sold in 1786. * was an 18-gun

ship-sloop During the 18th and 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship of the Royal Navy with a single gun deck that carried up to 18 guns. The rating system of the Royal Navy covered all vessels with 20 or more guns; thus, the term encompassed all u ...

launched in 1794 and destroyed by an accidental explosion in 1796. * HMS ''Cormorant'' was a 20-gun

sixth rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a sixth-rate was the designation for small warships mounting between 20 and 28 carriage-mounted guns on a single deck, sometimes with smaller guns on the upper works an ...

, launched in 1795, previously the name ship for the of French corvettes. She was captured in 1796 and wrecked in 1800. * was a 16-gun sloop, formerly the civilian ''Blenheim''. She was purchased in 1804, converted to a storeship in 1808 and sold in 1817. She then returned to mercantile service as a

West Indiaman West Indiaman was a general name for any merchantman sailing ship making runs from the Old World to the West Indies and the east coast of the Americas. These ships were generally strong ocean-going ships capable of handling storms in the Atlantic ...

under the name ''Blenheim''.''

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'
(1818), Supple. pages Seq. №B10.
/ref> She was last seen on 10 November 1821. * was a paddlewheel sloop launched in 1842 and broken up in 1853. * was a screw gunvessel launched in 1856 and sunk in 1859. * was a screw sloop launched in 1860 and sold in 1870. * was an composite screw sloop launched in 1877, reduced to harbour service in 1889, renamed HMS ''Rooke'' in 1946, and broken up in 1949. * was a patrol boat launched in 1975 as HMAFV ''Sunderland'' for the

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. She was transferred to the Royal Navy in 1985 and was sold in 1991.

Shore establishment

* was the

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between 1943 and 1944.

Other ships

*''Cormorant II'' was a trawler hired by the Royal Navy between 1915 and 1919. *''Cormorant III'' was a drifter hired by the Royal Navy between 1915 and 1919. *''Cormorant IV'' was a trawler hired by the Royal Navy between 1916 and 1919.

Citations

References

* *Demerliac, Alain (1996) ''La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792''. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA). {{DEFAULTSORT:Cormorant, Hms Royal Navy ship names