HMS ''Swift'' has been the name of numerous 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 ...

: :''This list may be incomplete.'' * was a 10-gun ship that was launched 1697 and ran aground off Port Comfort,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

in 1698. * was a

sloop-of-war 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 ...

of the Swift group, built in 1704 and sold in 1719. See

List of corvette and sloop classes of the Royal Navy This is a list of Sixth-rate, corvette, and sloop classes of the Royal Navy. During the Age of Sail, warships were divided into ranks or classes. The English Royal Navy adopted a scheme of six classes or "rates" in 1626. This system was in pl ...

for this vessel and the four following sloops. * was a sloop of the ''Otter'' class, built in 1721 and sold in 1741. * was a sloop of the ''Drake'' class, built in 1741, and lost in 1756. * was the French 10-gun

cutter Cutter may refer to: Tools * Bolt cutter * Box cutter * Cigar cutter * Cookie cutter * Cutter (hydraulic rescue tool) * Glass cutter * Meat cutter * Milling cutter * Paper cutter * Pizza cutter * Side cutter People * Cutter (surname) * Cutt ...

''Le Comte de Valence'', captured in 1760 and purchased by the Royal Navy on 6 March 1761. She was re-captured by the French

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding 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 o ...

''Manley'' on 30 June of the same year. * was a 14-gun sloop of the ''Swift'' class, built in 1763. She sank at

Puerto Deseado Puerto Deseado, originally called Port Desire, is a city of about 15,000 inhabitants and a fishing port in Patagonia in Santa Cruz Province of Argentina, on the estuary of the Deseado River. It was named ''Port Desire'' by the privateer Thomas ...

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, in 1770. * was a 302-ton burthen, ship-sloop which served in the American Revolutionary War. She ran aground after sinking an American privateer and was burnt by her crew in 1778 to avoid capture. * was a 14-gun

brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Ol ...

, launched in 1767, that the British captured from the United States in August 1779. She was commissioned in November under the command of Robert (or Richard) Sutton. * was a 16-gun ''Hawk''-class sloop launched in 1793 that was lost with all hands while sailing from Macao to England, presumed foundered in the South China Sea in a typhoon after last being seen on 2 July 1797. * was a 4-gun pilot-boat schooner built at

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, that the Royal Navy purchased in 1794 and that was broken up in 1802. * was the mercantile sloop ''Pacific'', launched at

Rotherhithe Rotherhithe ( ) is a district of South London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse on the north bank, with the Isle of Dogs to the ea ...

in 1802 that the Navy purchased in 1804, laid up in 1807, converted to a store ship in 1810, and sold in 1814.Winfield (2008), p. 263. * , a in service from 1817 to 1821 * was a

packet Packet may refer to: * A small container or pouch ** Packet (container), a small single use container ** Cigarette packet ** Sugar packet * Network packet, a formatted unit of data carried by a packet-mode computer network * Packet radio, a form ...

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 1835. * was a gunvessel launched 1879, and sold in Hong Kong in 1920 for mercantile use. See

List of gunboat and gunvessel classes of the Royal Navy This is a list of gunboat and gunvessel classes of the Royal Navy. For gun-brigs see List of gun-brigs of the Royal Navy. Steam gunboats Wooden paddle gunboats (Indian service) * Wooden paddle gunboats (Great Lakes) Iron paddle gunboat ...

. * was a

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

launched between 1884 and 1887, and broken up in 1921. * was a unique

flotilla leader A flotilla leader was a warship of late 19th century and early 20th century navies suitable for commanding a flotilla of destroyers or other small warships, typically a small cruiser or a large destroyer (known as a destroyer leader). The floti ...

that saw service in the

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. It was sold for breaking up in 1921. * was an S-class

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

sunk by a mine off the Normandy beaches on 24 June 1944. * was a patrol

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

built in 1984 and sold to the

Irish Naval Service The Naval Service () is the maritime component of the Defence Forces (Ireland), Defence Forces of Republic of Ireland, Ireland and is one of the three branches of the Irish Defence Forces. Its base is in Haulbowline, County Cork. Though prece ...

in 1988 renamed .

Notes

Citations

References

*Demerliac, Alain (1996) ''La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792''. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA). * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Swift, HMS Royal Navy ship names