Aid or AydeThe 'HMS' prefix was not used until the middle of the Eighteenth Century, but is sometimes applied retrospectively was an 18-gun ship of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. She was built at Deptford Dockyard, being launched on 6 October 1562. She was rebuilt in 1580 and was broken up in 1599. For the majority of her service, she was commanded by Sir Martin Frobisher

Martin Frobisher

Sir Martin Frobisher was an English seaman who made three voyages to the New World to look for the Northwest Passage...

.

Le Havre (1562)

Aid was one of three ships built in 1562 due to the threat of war with France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. Her first duty, in autumn of that year, was to help supply the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 garrison at Le Havre

Le Havre

Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...

. This continued until the port was captured by French loyalist forces from the Huguenots in August the following year.

Expedition to the Northwest Passage (1577)

The ship's next major duty was in 1577, when the ship was granted to Martin Frobisher

Martin Frobisher

Sir Martin Frobisher was an English seaman who made three voyages to the New World to look for the Northwest Passage...

 as part of his second expedition what is now the far north islands of Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The expedition was made up of the Aid, commanded by Frobisher, and two barks

Barque

A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...

, the Gabriel and the Michael, commanded by Edward Fenton

Edward Fenton

Edward Fenton was an English navigator, son of Henry Fenton and brother of Sir Geoffrey Fenton.He was a native of Nottinghamshire...

 and Gilbert Yorke respectively. The fleet, consisting over about 120 men, departed Harwich

Harwich

Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...

 on 31 May 1577. The expedition brought back 200 tons of ore, although the value of this was less than Frobisher's investors had hoped. They also brought back a family of Inuit

Inuit

The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...

, but all three; man, woman and her child, died within a month of arriving in England.

Second expedition to the Northwest Passage (1578)

Another voyage ensued, with Frobisher this time taking some fifteen vessels to explore the Northwest Passage

Northwest Passage

The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...

, mine ore and establish a manned settlement in the area. The journey was tough, with strong winds and thick ice preventing them from travelling beyond the Hudson Strait

Hudson Strait

Hudson Strait links the Atlantic Ocean to Hudson Bay in Canada. It lies between Baffin Island and the northern coast of Quebec, its eastern entrance marked by Cape Chidley and Resolution Island. It is long...

, and they returned to Frobisher Bay

Frobisher Bay

Frobisher Bay is a relatively large inlet of the Labrador Sea in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is located in the southeastern corner of Baffin Island...

. There, Aid was hulled below the waterline by an ice floe, requiring repair by a sheet of lead. They abandoned plans to establish a settlement in the area and returned to England with over 1,000 tons of ore.

Anglo-Spanish War (1580s)

Aid was rebuilt in 1580 as relations with the Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 deteriorated. Under the command of Frobisher, Aid was involved in the Siege of Smerwick, as part of the English fleet sent to remove a combined Spanish-Papal force taking refuge at Dún an Óir. Remaining under Frobisher's command, Aid was one of two ships contributed by Queen Elizabeth I to Sir Francis Drake's expedition to the Spanish West Indies

Spanish West Indies

The Spanish West Indies was the contemporary name for the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean...

 in 1585. She was later part of Drake's fleet at Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

 to meet the Spanish Armada

Spanish Armada

This article refers to the Battle of Gravelines, for the modern navy of Spain, see Spanish NavyThe Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, with the intention of overthrowing Elizabeth I of England to stop English...

, remaining with the fleet from the arrival of the Armada on 31 July until the defeat of the Spanish at the Battle of Gravelines, eight days later. The Aid was also involved in the ill-fated Counter Armada

English Armada

The English Armada, also known as the Counter Armada or the Drake-Norris Expedition, was a fleet of warships sent to the Iberian Coast by Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1589, during the Anglo-Spanish War...

the following year.