HMS Tiger
Encyclopedia
Fifteen ships of the British Royal Navy
have carried the name HMS Tiger after the feline tiger
, with a number of others provisionally bearing the name at various stages in their construction:
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...
have carried the name HMS Tiger after the feline tiger
Tiger
The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
, with a number of others provisionally bearing the name at various stages in their construction:
- Tiger was a 22-gun ship built in 1546, rebuilt in 1570 and in use as a floating batteryFloating batteryA floating battery is a kind of armed watercraft, often improvised or experimental, which carries a heavy armament but has few other qualities as a warship.An early appearance was during the Great Siege of Gibraltar....
after 1600. She was condemned in 1605. - HMS Tiger was a discovery vessel recorded in the Arctic in 1613.
- HMS TygerHMS Tyger (1647)HMS Tyger, often spelled Tiger, was a 38-gun fourth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, built by Peter Pett II at Woolwich and launched in 1647. The term 'frigate' during the period of this ship referred to a method of construction, rather than a role which did not develop until the following century...
was a 32-gun ship launched in 1647, rebuilt in 1681, 1701, 1705 and 1721, and wrecked in 1742. - HMS TigerHMS Harwich (1743)HMS Harwich was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the dimensions laid down in the 1741 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Harwich, and launched on 22 December 1743.Harwich was wrecked in 1760....
was a 50-gun fourth rate renamed Harwich shortly before launching in 1743. She was wrecked in 1760. - HMS TigerHMS Tiger (1747)HMS Tiger was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Rotherhithe to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment, and launched on 23 November 1747....
was a 60-gun fourth rate launched in 1747. She was hulked in 1761 and sold in Bombay in 1765. - HMS Tiger was a 74-gun third rate, previously the SpanishSpainSpain , 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...
TigreSpanish ship Tigre (1747)Tigre was a 74-gun ship of the line of the Spanish Navy, launched in 1747.She was captured by the Royal Navy on 13 August 1762, and commissioned as the third rate HMS Tigre. She was sold out of the navy in 1783....
. She was captured in 1762 and sold in 1784. - HMS TigerHMS Ardent (1764)HMS Ardent was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built by contract by Hugh Blaydes at Hull according to the plans of Sir Thomas Slade, and launched on 13 August 1764 as the first ship of the...
was a 64-gun third rate launched in 1764 as HMS ArdentHMS Ardent (1764)HMS Ardent was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built by contract by Hugh Blaydes at Hull according to the plans of Sir Thomas Slade, and launched on 13 August 1764 as the first ship of the...
. She was captured by the French in 1764, but was recaptured in 1782 and renamed HMS Tiger. She was sold in 1784. - HMS TigerHMS Grampus (1802)HMS Grampus was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Diomede Class of the Royal Navy. She was commissioned in March 1803 at Portsmouth by Captain Hugh Downman, but in the following month command passed to Captain Thomas Gordon Caulfield. The ship was completed on 11 April 1803 and was...
was to have been a 50-gun fourth rate, but she was renamed HMS GrampusHMS Grampus (1802)HMS Grampus was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Diomede Class of the Royal Navy. She was commissioned in March 1803 at Portsmouth by Captain Hugh Downman, but in the following month command passed to Captain Thomas Gordon Caulfield. The ship was completed on 11 April 1803 and was...
before her launch in 1802. - HMS Tiger was a 4-gun hoyHoy (boat)A hoy was a small sloop-rigged coasting ship or a heavy barge used for freight, usually displacing about 60 tons. The word derives from the Middle Dutch hoey. In 1495, one of the Paston Letters included the phrase, An hoye of Dorderycht , in such a way as to indicate that such contact was then...
purchased in 1794 and sold in 1798. - HMS Tiger was an 80-gun second rate captured from the French in 1795. She was broken up by 1817.
- HMS Tiger was a 12-gun brigBrigA brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
in service from 1808 to 1812. - HMS Tiger was a wooden-hulled paddle sloopSloop-of-warIn the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...
launched in 1849, reclassified as a frigateFrigateA frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
in 1852, and captured by the Russians in 1854, becoming Tigr. - HMS Tiger was a C classC class destroyer (1913)The C class as designated in 1913 was a heterogeneous group of torpedo boat destroyers built for the Royal Navy in the late-1890s. They were constructed to the individual designs of their builders to meet Admiralty specifications. The uniting feature of the class was a top speed of 30 knots, a...
destroyerDestroyerIn naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
launched in 1900. She was sunk in 1908 in a collision with the cruiser HMS BerwickHMS Berwick (1902)HMS Berwick was a Monmouth-class armoured cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She was launched on 20 September 1902. In 1908, she collided with the destroyer Tiger when the destroyer crossed Berwicks bows during an exercise in the English Channel, south of the Isle of Wight...
. - HMS TigerHMS Tiger (1913)The 11th HMS Tiger was a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy, built by John Brown and Company, Clydebank, Scotland, and launched in 1913. Tiger was the most heavily armoured battlecruiser of the Royal Navy at the start of the First World War although she was still being finished when the war began...
was a battlecruiserBattlecruiserBattlecruisers were large capital ships built in the first half of the 20th century. They were developed in the first decade of the century as the successor to the armoured cruiser, but their evolution was more closely linked to that of the dreadnought battleship...
launched in 1913 and scrapped in 1932. - HMS Tiger was to have been a Minotaur classMinotaur class cruiser (1943)The Minotaur class of light cruisers of the Royal Navy, also known as the Swiftsure class, was designed as a modified version of the Crown Colony class incorporating war modifications and authorised in 1941, but, in spite of the heavy toll of cruisers in that year and the following one, the...
light cruiserLight cruiserA light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...
. She was initially ordered in 1942, but renamed HMS Bellerophon later that year and was laid down in 1944. She was renamed HMS Blake in 1944, HMS Bellerophon again in 1945 and was cancelled in 1946. - HMS Tiger was another proposed Minotaur class cruiser, initially ordered as HMS Blake. She was renamed HMS Tiger in 1944, and then HMS Blake again in 1945. After work was suspended in 1946, she was completed and launched in 1961 as HMS BlakeHMS Blake (C99)HMS Blake was a guided missile cruiser of the Tiger class of the Royal Navy, the last of the Royal Navy cruisers. She was named after Admiral Robert Blake, a 17th century admiral who was the "Father of the Royal Navy". She was ordered in 1942 as one of the Minotaur class of light cruisers...
- HMS TigerHMS Tiger (C20)HMS Tiger was a conventional cruiser of the Royal Navy, one of a three ship class known as the Tiger class.-Construction, redesign and commissioning:...
was another Minotaur class cruiser, initially ordered as HMS Bellerophon. She was renamed HMS Tiger in 1945 and launched in 1941. She was laid up in 1946 and completed in 1959 as a Tiger classTiger class cruiserThe Tiger-class helicopter cruisers were the first of such a type in the Royal Navy, and the last cruisers built for the Royal Navy. They were originally designed to be Minotaur-class light cruisers...
missile cruiser. She was scrapped in 1986.
See also
- HMS Tiger BayHMS Tiger BayHMS Tiger Bay is a former Argentine Z-28 patrol boat that was captured by the British and brought into service with the Royal Navy at the end of the Falklands War on 14 June when she had suffered engine failure which reduced her top speed by 50%...
- HMS Tiger Prize
- HMS Tiger Snake
- HMS Tiger Whelp
- HMS TigressHMS TigressFour ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Tigress, after the female tiger: was a 12-gun gun-brig launched in 1797 and sold in 1802. was a 12-gun gun-brig launched in 1804 and captured by the Danes in 1808. was a 12-gun gun-brig, previously the French ship Pierre Czar. She was captured...