HMS Ranger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fifteen ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Ranger

• HMS Ranger was a 24-gun sixth rate, previously the French privateer Deux Couronnes. She was captured in 1747 by HMS Gloucester.
• HMS Ranger was an 8-gun sloop launched in 1752 and sold in 1783.
• HMS Ranger was a cutter purchased in 1779. She was renamed HMS Pigmy in 1781 and converted into a sloop. She was sold in 1784.
• HMS Ranger was a 14-gun cutter purchased in 1787. She was captured by the French in 1794 and recaptured in 1797, when she was renamed HMS Venturer. She was sold in 1803.
• HMS Ranger was a 16-gun sloop launched in 1794. She was captured and burnt by the French in 1805.
• HMS Ranger was a brig-sloop built in 1797 and purchased by the Navy. Her fate is unknown.
• HMS Ranger was a 16-gun cutter launched in 1806 and purchased by the Navy. She was renamed HMS Pigmy later in 1806 and was lost in 1814.
• HMS Ranger was an 18-gun sloop launched in 1807 and broken up in 1814.
• HMS Ranger was a 28-gun sixth rate launched in 1820 and sold in 1832.
• HMS Ranger was an 8-gun packet brig launched in 1835, hulked in 1860 and sold in 1867.
• HMS Ranger was a Philomel class wood screw gunboat, launched in 1859 and sold in 1869.
• HMS Ranger was an Algerine class composite screw gunboat launched in 1880. She was sold as a salvage vessel in 1892, and hired between 1914 and 1919 as an ammunition hulk. She was broken up in 1947.
• HMS Ranger was a Sunfish class destroyer launched in 1895 and sold in 1920.
• HMS Ranger was to have been a C class destroyer. She was renamed HMS Caesar in 1942 before being launched in 1944.
• HMS Ranger is an Archer class patrol vessel, launched in 1986, completed in 1988, and currently in service.

In addition to these ships, a hired sloop was temporarily commissioned as HMS Ranger in 1718 to take part in the successful hunt for the notorious pirate Blackbeard, but does not appear to have ever formally been a part of the Navy.

[edit] In fiction

A fictitious Polaris Resolution class submarine captured in the James Bond film "The Spy Who Loved Me" was also named HMS Ranger.

[edit] References

• Colledge, J. J. and Warlow, Ben (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy, Rev. ed., London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.