Six 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 ''Perseus'', after the Greek hero
Perseus
In Greek mythology, Perseus (, ; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer of ...
:
* was a 20-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 1776; she was the first vessel of the Royal Navy to be sheathed in copper.
[Chambers & Thomson (1870), Vol. 2, p.429.] She was converted to a
bomb vessel
A bomb vessel, bomb ship, bomb ketch, or simply bomb was a type of wooden sailing naval ship. Its primary armament was not cannons (Naval long gun, long guns or carronades) – although bomb vessels carried a few cannons for self-defence – but ...
in 1799 and was broken up in 1805.
* was a 22-gun sixth rate launched in 1812. She was used for harbour service from 1818 and was broken up in 1850.
* was a wooden
screw sloop
A screw sloop is a propeller-driven sloop-of-war. They were popularized in the mid-19th century, during the introduction of the steam engine and the transition of fleets to this new technology.
The sailing sloop
The British sloop in the Age o ...
launched in 1861. She was used for harbour service from 1886, was renamed HMS ''Defiance II'' in 1904 and was probably sold in 1912.
* was a
protected cruiser
Protected cruisers, a type of cruiser of the late 19th century, took their name from the armored deck, which protected vital machine-spaces from fragments released by explosive shells. Protected cruisers notably lacked a belt of armour alon ...
launched in 1897 and sold for scrap in 1914.
* was a launched in 1929 and sunk in 1941 during the Second World War.
* was a launched in 1944 as HMS ''Edgar'' but renamed a few months later. She was scrapped in 1958.
Citations
References
*Chambers, Robert & Thomas Thomson (1870) ''A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen'', Vol. 2. (Blackie and son).
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perseus, Hms
Royal Navy ship names