Ten 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 been named HMS ''Pandora'' after the
mythological
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
Pandora
In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus. As Hesiod related it, each god cooperated by giving her unique gifts. Her other name—inscribed against her figure on a white-ground '' ky ...
. Another was planned, but the name was reassigned to another ship:
* , 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 1779. She was sent to capture the
''Bounty'' mutineers in 1790 and ran aground in 1791 on the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland.
* HMS ''Pandora'' (1780) was the French 14-gun
brig
A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, 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 l ...
, launched in 1780, that the British captured in 1795 and renamed HMS ''Pandora''; she foundered in the North Sea in 1797.
* , an 18-gun launched in 1806 and wrecked in 1811 off the
Skaw with the loss 27 men to exposure.
[Hepper (1994), p. 135.]
* HMS ''Pandora'', to have been another 18-gun ''Cruizer''-class brig-sloop. She was ordered in 1812, renamed HMS ''Lynx'' later that year, and was cancelled in 1818.
* , an 18-gun ''Cruizer''-class brig-sloop launched in 1813, converted to a
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 ...
in 1825, put up for sale in 1827 and sold in 1831.
* , a 3-gun
packet brig launched in 1833. She became a coastguard watchvessel in 1857 and was sold in 1862.
* , a wooden
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 1859 and sold in 1875 for use as an Arctic expedition ship. She was sold to American explorers in 1878, renamed and sunk by ice in 1881.
* HMS ''Pandora'', a
armoured cruiser
The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a pre-dreadnought battles ...
launched in 1889, renamed in 1890 and sold in 1906.
* , a armoured cruiser launched in 1900 and scrapped in 1913.
* , a depot ship, formerly the civilian ''Seti''. She was renamed HMS ''Dolphin'' in 1924 and was sunk by a
mine in 1939.
* , a launched in 1929 and sunk at
Valletta
Valletta ( ; , ) is the capital city of Malta and one of its 68 Local councils of Malta, council areas. Located between the Grand Harbour to the east and Marsamxett Harbour to the west, its population as of 2021 was 5,157. As Malta’s capital ...
,
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 ...
in 1942. She was raised in 1943 and broken up in 1957.
See also
*
*''
To the Ends of the Earth'', a trilogy of novels by
William Golding
Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel '' Lord of the Flies'' (1954), Golding published another 12 volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 19 ...
set aboard a fictitious HMS ''Pandora''
Citations
References
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pandora, Hms
Royal Navy ship names