Royal Navy Historic Ships

Back to Royal Navy Auxiliaries and Other Ships (including RFA vessels)

(measurements of length are overall length from the taffrail or transom to tip of the bowsprit or jib-boom)

HMS Warrior (1861) LOA 420′ TDISP 9,200 tons

HMS Victory, 100 cannon First-Rate 100 cannon ship of the line (1765 – still in commission) LOA 316′ TDISP 3,500 tons

HMS Victory, raising the yards in August 1945 © IWM (A 30810)

This more recent capture shows HMS Victory now having her upper masts and jib-boom removed, presumably for routine maintenance.

HMS Trincomalee (1817) Leda class 38-46 gun frigate Hartlepool UK museum ship LOA 250′ TDISP 1065 tons

Training Ships Foudroyant (left) and Implacable, Portsmouth. Foudroyant was originally and would be renamed Trincomalee, while Implacable, scuttled in 1949, was originally the French prize Duguay-Trouin, captured at the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805. © IWM (A 25960)

HMS Unicorn (1824) modified Leda Class 38-46 gun frigate Museum ship LOA 202′ (jib-boom not stepped) TDISP 1000 tons Dundee Scotland (only sailing warship preserved in an “in ordinary” state)

HM Frigate Unicorn, the innovative “round stern” design allowed more cannon to be trained aft, to defend the vulnerable stern. © Copyright M J Richardson

HMS Gannet Dotterel class composite sloop (1878) sloop LOA 225′ TDISP 1,130 tons museum ship Chatham Historic Dockyard since 1987

HMS Calypso, (1885-1922) Calypso class steam corvette LOA 235′ TDISP 2,770 tons. in 1916 renamed HMS Briton to make “Calypso” available for a “C” class cruiser. From 1902 to disposal in 1922 served as a Royal Naval Reserve (Newfoundland) training and depot ship in St. John’s NFLD. After disposal was used as a salt hulk for many years in Lewisporte, and eventually burned and settled in the Bay of Exploits near Embree, NFLD.

HMS Calypso before the rig was reduced and deck structures erected, showing the original casemate guns and the decorated stern lights. Allan C. Green / Public domain via State Library of Victoria, Australia H91.250/1472

ex-HMS Calypso / Briton hulk in Lewisporte, NFLD, no date. Department of National Defence CN-5077 via Crowsnest Feb. 1960 edition (Vol. 12 no. 4) p 15. Note at this time the casemates had been removed and the gaps planked over, the entire rig, except what appears to be the lower mizzen, had been removed, along with the funnel and a large deck-house had been erected.

The vessels of the Warship Preservation Trust located in the Great Float in Birkenhead before the Trust dissolved and they were disposed of or preserved