Twenty-two ships 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 ''Falcon''. They are named after an exceptionally fast bird of prey. * was a "ballinger" (a moderate-size oared vessel) dating from 1334. She was sold in 1352. * was a ship in service from 1461 to 1485. * was a pinnace in service from 1544 to 1578. * was a ship of 180 bm in service in 1603. * was a 24-gun ship purchased in 1646. She was gone by 1659. * was a 6-gun vessel captured from the

Royalists A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gover ...

in 1646. She was last listed in 1653. * was a 10-gun ship captured from the

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in 1652. She was used as a

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 ...

in 1653 and sold in 1658. She was also known as ''Golden Falcon''. * was a 36-gun

fifth rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a fifth rate was the second-smallest class of warships in a hierarchical system of six " ratings" based on size and firepower. Rating The rating system in the Royal N ...

launched in 1666. She was upgraded to a 42-gun

fourth rate In 1603 all English warships with a complement of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers, a six-tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided ...

in 1668, but reverted to a 36-gun fifth rate in 1691. In 1694 she was captured by the

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in the

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. * was a 24-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 1694. In 1695 she was captured by three French ships off Dodman. She was recaptured in 1703 and broken up. * was converted from a

merchant ship A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are ...

in 1694 to a 38-gun fifth rate. She was captured by the French in 1695. * was a 32-gun

launched in 1704. In 1709 she was captured by the French 58-gun in the

. * was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1744. In 1745 she was captured by the French off

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. She was recaptured in 1746 and renamed ''Fortune''. Sold in 1770. * was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1745. She was converted to an 8-gun

bombardment A bombardment is an attack by artillery fire or by dropping bombs from aircraft on fortifications, combatants, or cities and buildings. Prior to World War I, the term was only applied to the bombardment of defenseless or undefended obje ...

ship in 1758. She was wrecked in the

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in 1759. * was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1771. She was involved in the Battle off Fairhaven, said to be the first naval engagement of the American Revolution. She was sunk in 1778 as a

blockship A blockship is a ship deliberately sunk to prevent a river, channel, or canal from being used as a waterway. It may either be sunk by a navy defending the waterway to prevent the ingress of attacking enemy forces, as in the case of at Portland ...

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, was salvaged, and then sank in 1779. * was a 14-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 ...

launched in 1782. She was used as a fireship and expended in 1800 at

Dunkirk Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...

Roads. * was a 14-gun sloop. She was launched as ''Diadem'' in 1799; the Admiralty purchased her in 1801 and renamed her ''Falcon''. It sold her in 1816. * was a Danish 16-gun sloop that was found abandoned in 1807 near Danzig. She was in service in 1808. * was a 10-gun launched in 1820. An engine was fitted in 1833 and then removed the following year. She was sold in 1838. * was a 17-gun launched in 1854. She was sold in 1869. * was a 14-gun launched in 1877. She was put into harbour service in 1890 and sold in 1920. * was a small

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

launched in 1899. In 1918 she was sunk in a collision with the trawler ''John Fitzgerald'' in the

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. * was a river

gunboat 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. History Pre-steam ...

launched in 1931. She was handed over to the Chinese Navy in 1942, and renamed ''Lung Huang''. Became ''Ying Teh'' in 1948 and ''Nan Chiang'' in 1950. Served until 1974. * was a Royal Navy Air Station at Hal Far,

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Falcon Royal Navy ship names