Seven ships of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

have borne the name HMS ''Penguin''. A ''

penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

'' is a flightless

aquatic bird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

. * was a 20-gun post ship. She was originally launched in 1731 as ''Dolphine'', then renamed ''Firebrand'', and finally renamed ''Penguin'' in 1757. The French captured her in 1760. * was an 8-gun

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 sa ...

building in 1772. She was not completed and was broken up in 1775. * a 10-gun schooner purchased in

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

and wrecked in a storm in ther Bay of Bulls in 1778 * HMS ''Penguin'' was a 16-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 ...

. She was originally the Dutch ''Komeet'' and was captured in 1795 by off the coast of Ireland. She was originally named HMS ''Comeet'' before being renamed to HMS ''Penguin'' in 1796. She was sold in 1809. * was a 19-gun launched in 1813. The American ship-sloop captured her in 1815 off

Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately from Cape Town in South Africa, from Saint Helena ...

and afterwards scuttled her as ''Penguin'' was so damaged as to be of no value as a prize. * was a 6-gun packet brig laid down in 1838. In 1858 she became a coastguard watchvessel. She was renamed ''WV.31'' in 1863 and sold in 1873. * was a launched in 1860 at Liverpool. She was sold in 1870 for scrap. * was an launched in 1876. In 1890 she became a

survey ship A survey vessel is any type of ship or boat that is used for underwater surveys, usually to collect data for mapping or planning underwater construction or mineral extraction. It is a type of research vessel, and may be designed for the purpo ...

and in 1908 a depot ship. She was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy in 1913 and sold in 1924. She became a crane hulk and was burnt in 1960.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Penguin, Hms Royal Navy ship names

See also

References