Eight ships of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

have borne the name HMS ''Espiegle'' * was a 16-gun French

brig-sloop In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' enco ...

, launched at Bayonne in 1788. and captured her off Ushant on 30 November 1793. She was sold in 1802. * was a French 12-gun

aviso An ''aviso'' was originally a kind of dispatch boat or "advice boat", carrying orders before the development of effective remote communication. The term, derived from the Portuguese and Spanish word for "advice", "notice" or "warning", an ' ...

launched in 1793 at

Saint-Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast. The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the A ...

. captured her in the Antilles on 16 March 1794. She was commissioned under Lieutenant John Fishley. The Navy sold her in 1800. * was a 16-gun

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular ...

, formerly the civilian vessel ''Wimbury'' (or ''Wembury''), launched at Barnstaple in 1803. The Admiralty purchased her in 1804 and sold her in 1811 for breaking up. * was an 18-gun launched in 1812 and sold in 1832. * was a 12-gun

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the latter part ...

launched in 1844 and sold in 1861. * was a composite

screw sloop A screw sloop is a propeller-driven sloop-of-war. In the 19th century, during the introduction of the steam engine, ships driven by propellers were differentiated from those driven by paddle-wheels by referring to the ship's ''screws'' (propel ...

launched in 1880. She became a boom vessel in 1899, was renamed HMS ''Argo'' in 1904 and was sold in 1921. * was a launched in 1900 and sold in 1923. * was an launched in 1942 and broken up in 1967. A gun-boat named ''Espiegle'' served in the navy's Egyptian campaign between 8 March and 2 September 1801. Her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal, which the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.

Notes, citations, and references

Notes Citations References * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Espiegle, Hms Royal Navy ship names