HMS Sapphire

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HMS Sapphire has been the name of several Royal Navy warships:

• The first Sapphire (32 guns) was a fifth-rate sailing frigate, stationed in Newfoundland in 1696 to protect the English migratory fishery. The vessel was trapped in Bay Bulls Harbour by four French naval vessels led by Jacques-François de Brouillan. In order to avoid capture, her crew scuttled the vessel in sixty feet of water on 11 September of that year. In 1975 she was declared a Provincial Historic Site.

• The second Sapphire was a sailing sloop, launched in 1827. Sold in 1864.

• The third Sapphire was a wooden screw corvette of the Amethyst class, launched in 1874. Sold in 1892.

• The fourth Sapphire was a third-class protected cruiser of the Gem (or Topaze) class, launched in 1904 at Jarrow. Served in home waters with the Grand Fleet, in the Mediterranean, and in the East Indies. Sold for scrap in 1921.

The armoured cruiser HMS Imperieuse was temporarily named Sapphire II when she was a destroyer depot ship at Portland from 1905 to 1909.