Several vessels 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 been named HMS ''Nonsuch'', presumably named after

Nonsuch Palace Nonsuch Palace was a Tudor royal palace, built by Henry VIII in Surrey, England; it stood from 1538 to 1682–83. Its site lies in what is now Nonsuch Park on the boundaries of the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey and the London Borou ...

: * , a 38-gun

great ship The rating system of the Royal Navy and its predecessors was used by the Royal Navy between the beginning of the 17th century and the middle of the 19th century to categorise sailing warships, initially classing them according to their assi ...

, rebuilt from a previous ship and sold c. 1645 * , a 34-gun ship launched in 1646 and wrecked 1664 * , an 8-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 fro ...

launched in 1650 that the Royal Navy purchased in 1654 and sold in 1667; later as the merchant vessel ''Nonsuch'' she made the trading voyage establishing the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trade, fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake b ...

* , 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 ...

launched in 1668. Upgraded to a 42-gun fourth rate in 1669, but reverted to 36-gun fifth rate in 1691. She was captured in 1695 by the French

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare 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 or deleg ...

* , a 5-gun

hoy Hoy ( sco, Hoy; from Norse , meaning "high island") is an island in Orkney, Scotland, measuring – the second largest in the archipelago, after Mainland. A natural causeway, ''the Ayre'', links the island to the smaller South Walls; the two i ...

launched in 1686 and sold 1714 * , a 48-gun fourth-rate

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...

, launched in 1696, rebuilt 1717, and broken up in 1745 * , a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line in service from 1741 to 1766 * , a 64-gun

third-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Years of experience proved that the third ...

ship of the line launched in 1774, used as a

floating battery A floating battery is a kind of armed watercraft, often improvised or experimental, which carries heavy armament but has few other qualities as a warship. History Use of timber rafts loaded with cannon by Danish defenders of Copenhagen a ...

from 1794, and broken up in 1802 * , an launched in 1915 and sold in 1921 * , a

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 ...

laid down in February 1945 and canceled in October of that year * , the former German Type 1936A ('Narvik') destroyer taken after the end of World War II, and scrapped in 1949

Battle honours

* Kentish Knock 1652 * Portland 1653 * Gabbard 1653 * Texel 1673 * St. Lucia 1778 * The Saints 1782 * Jutland 1916

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nonsuch, Hms Royal Navy ship names

Battle honours

See also

References