HMS Hermes

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Ten ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Hermes, after Hermes, the messenger god of Greek mythology:

• The first Hermes was originally the Dutch sloop Mercurius, captured in 1796 by HMS Sylph.
• The second Hermes was a 22-gun ship purchased in 1798 and sold in 1802.
• The third Hermes, originally Majestic, was a 16-gun sloop purchased in 1803 and sold in 1810.
• The fourth Hermes was a 20-gun sixth-rate launched in 1811, and burned in 1814 during the War of 1812.
• The fifth Hermes was a wooden paddle packet, originally George IV, purchased in 1830, renamed Hermes in 1832, renamed Charger in 1835, and broken up in 1854.
• The sixth Hermes was a wooden paddle sloop launched in 1835 and broken up in 1864.
• The seventh Hermes was a 74-gun third-rate, originally named Minotaur, launched in 1816, renamed in 1866, and broken up in 1869
• The eighth Hermes was a converted cruiser that was used as an experimental seaplane tender by the Royal Naval Air Service shortly before World War I. She was sunk by a German U-boat in 1914.
• The ninth Hermes was the first purpose built fleet aircraft carrier in the world to be launched (11 September 1919), built just after the First World War. She served in World War II and was sunk by Japanese air attack off Ceylon on 9 April 1942.
• An aircraft carrier to be named Hermes was ordered but cancelled in 1945.
• The tenth Hermes (R12) was the last of the postwar conventional aircraft carriers commissioned into the Royal Navy (1959), later serving in the Falklands War, then sold to the Indian Navy and recommissioned as Viraat.

[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.