Nine vessels of the United Kingdom's

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 ''Porcupine'', after the

porcupine Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp Spine (zoology), spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two Family (biology), families of animals: the Old World porcupines of the family Hystricidae, and the New ...

, a

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...

belonging to the families Erethizontidae or Hystricidae. * was a 16-gun sloop launched in 1743, purchased in 1746, and sold in 1763. She became the mercantile ''Minerva'', which in 1768 traded between London and Africa.''

Lloyd's Register Lloyd's Register Group Limited, trading as Lloyd's Register (LR), is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research ...

'
(1768), Seq.No.M295.
/ref> * was a 24-gun

post ship Post ship was a designation used in the Royal Navy during the second half of the 18th century and the Napoleonic Wars to describe a sixth-rate ship (see rating system of the Royal Navy) that was smaller than a frigate (in practice, carrying ...

launched in 1777 and broken up in 1805. *HMS ''Porcupine'' was a 16-gun sloop purchased in Jamaica in 1777 and sold in 1788. * was a 22-gun post ship launched in 1807 and sold in 1816. *HMS ''Porcupine'' was to have been a 28-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 ...

; ordered in 1819, she was canceled in 1832. * was a wooden paddle wheel surveying vessel built at Deptford and sold in 1883. * was a launched by Palmers in 1895 that served in home waters and was sold in 1920. * was a P-class destroyer launched in 1941 and torpedoed by in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

in 1942. *HMS ''Porcupine'' was to have been a survey ship, renamed in 1967 as HMS ''Barracouta'', but the order was cancelled in 1967.

Citations

References

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