Twelve 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 ''Mosquito'', or the archaic HMS ''Musquito'', after the tropical insect, the
Mosquito
Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mos ...
:
* was a vessel in service in 1777.
* was a 6-gun
schooner
A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...
, previously the French
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 ...
''Venus''. She was captured in 1793, purchased by the Navy in 1794, and paid off in 1796.
* HMS ''Musquito'' was the name vessel for the two-vessel
''Musquito'' class of floating batteries; she was launched in 1794 but wrecked in June 1795.
* was a 16-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 ...
, previously the French
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 ...
''Petite Magicienne''. She was captured by three Spanish frigates in September 1798.
* or ''Muskito'' was a 12-gun schooner captured from the French in 1799 and sold in 1802.
* was a launched in 1804 and sold in 1822.
* was a launched in 1825 and sold in 1843.
* was a 16-gun launched in 1851 and sold to the
Prussian Navy
The Prussian Navy (German language, German: ''Preußische Marine''), officially the Royal Prussian Navy (German Language, German: ''Königlich Preußische Marine''), was the naval force of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1701 to 1867.
The Prussian N ...
in 1862.
* was a composite launched in 1871 and sold in 1888.
* was a paddle river gunboat launched in 1890 and sold in 1902.
* was a launched in 1910 and sold in 1920.
* was a launched in 1939 and sunk in 1940.
* was a naval base in
Alexandria, Egypt
Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
See also
* was a
torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...
launched in 1884. She served in the
Queensland Maritime Defence Force and (after federation) the
Commonwealth Naval Forces
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond. The Chief of Navy is also jointly responsible to the Minister for D ...
and was sold in 1912.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosquito, Hms
Royal Navy ship names