Four 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 ''Morning Star'', after the poetic name for

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

: * was a 14-gun

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch f ...

captured from the Dutch in 1672 and given away in 1674. * was a cutter purchased in 1763 and sold in 1773. She then underwent a large repair and became a

slave ship Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting Slavery, slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea ( ...

, first under her existing name and then as ''Fanny''. She was last listed in 1778. * was a 16-gun sloop, formerly the American

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

''Congress'' that HMS captured in 1781; the Navy sold her in 1782. * was an M-class

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 1915 and sold in 1921. Note: Colledge & Warlow list an HMS ''Morning Star'' and describe her a 22-gun sloop of 350 tons burthen launched in 1799 at the

Bombay Dockyard Naval Dockyard, Mumbai, abbreviated as ND (Mbi) and previously known as the Bombay Dockyard, is an Indian shipbuilding yard in Mumbai. The superintendent of the dockyard is a naval officer of the rank Rear Admiral, known as the Admiral Superint ...

for the Indian avy However, there was no Indian Navy at the time, only the Bombay Marine, the naval arm of the British

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

. More critically, the most complete list of ships built at the Bombay Dockyard shows no such vessel. It does show a ''Mornington'', of 22 guns and 438 tons burthen being launched in 1799. She was later sold at auction.

Citations

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morning Star, Hms Royal Navy ship names