HMS Scorpion

Ten ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Scorpion after the carnivorous arthropod, or the scorpion, a ballistic weapon in use in the Roman army:

• HMS Scorpion (1746) was a 14-gun Merlin-class sloop launched in 1746. She sank in the Irish Sea in 1762.
• HMS Scorpion (1785) was a 16-gun Echo-class sloop launched in 1785 and sold in 1802. She apparently became the whaler Scorpion, and worked in the South Seas fisheries until the Spaniards captured her in 1808.
• HMS Scorpion (1794) was a gunvessel purchased in 1794 and sold in 1804
• HMS Scorpion (1803) was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched in 1803 and sold in 1819.
• HMS Scorpion (1832) was a Cherokee-class brig-sloop launched in 1832, converted to a survey vessel in 1848 and on loan to the Thames Police from 1858. She was broken up in 1874.
• HMS Scorpion (1863) was a turret ship, one of two being constructed for the Confederate States of America under the cover story that they were intended for Egypt; the British Government seized them before they were launched in 1863. Scorpion sank in 1903 while being towed for scrapping.
• HMS Scorpion (1910) was a Beagle-class destroyer launched in 1910 and sold for scrapping in 1921.
• HMS Scorpion (T67) was a river gunboat launched in 1937 and sunk by Japanese destroyers in Banka Strait in 1942.
• HMS Scorpion (G72) was an S-class destroyer launched in 1942 and sold to the Netherlands in 1945.
• HMS Scorpion (D64) was a Weapon-class destroyer launched in 1946 and scrapped in 1971.

British privateer

• Scorpion, a ship of 343 tons burthen (bm), Dagg master, received a letter of marque on 23 May 1803. She was armed with twenty 6-pounder guns, but carried a crew of only 25 men.^[1] In January 1804 she captured two French whalers, the Cyrus and the Ganges, and took them into St Helena.^[2]

Fictional vessel

• HMS Scorpion, a fictional submarine featured in the British 2006 TV film Ghostboat
• HMS Scorpion, is a fictional ship mentioned in the introduction of HG Wells book The Island Of Doctor Moreau.

Citations and references

1. Letter of Marque, 1793-1815;
2. Lloyd's List, no.4424, - accessed 16 October 2014.

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.