Nineteen ships of the
Royal Navy have been named HMS Lion or HMS Lyon, after the
lion, an animal traditionally associated with
courage, and also used in several
heraldric motifs representing
England,
Scotland and the
British Monarchy. Another ship was planned but never completed:
English ship Lion (1557) was a 40-gun ship, also known as Golden Lion. She was rebuilt four times, in 1582, 1609, 1640 and 1658. After her 1609 rebuild she was renamed Red Lion, but this was reverted to Lion after the 1640 rebuild. She was sold in 1698.
HMS Lion (1665) was a 6-gun
ketch, also known as Young Lion. She was captured from the
Dutch in 1665, sold in 1667, repurchased in 1668 and sunk as a foundation at
Sheerness in 1673.
HMS Lion (1794) was a 4-gun
gunvessel, originally a Dutch hoy. She was purchased in 1794 and sold in 1795.
HMS Lion (1823) was the pirate schooner Gata, built in Baltimore in 1820, that the
Royal Navy captured in 1823 and took into service. She took part in numerous expeditions against pirates, recaptured some of their prizes, and captured a slave ship. The Navy sold her in 1826.
HMS Lion (1847) was an 80-gun
second rate launched in 1847. She was converted to screw propulsion in 1859 and became a
training ship after 1871. She was sold for breaking up in 1905.
HMS Lion (1939) was to have been a
Lion-class battleship. She was laid down in 1939, but work was suspended later that year, and again in 1942. The order was finally cancelled in 1945 and she was broken up on the slipway.
HMS Lion (C34) was a
Tiger-class cruiser launched in 1944 as the
Minotaur-class HMS Defence. She was finally completed to a revised design in 1960. She was placed in reserve in 1964 and was scrapped in 1975.
Battle honours
Ships named Lion have earned the following
battle honours:
Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot.
ISBN0-948864-30-3.
Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth.
ISBN978-1844157006.
List of ships with the same or similar names
This article includes a
list of ships with the same or similar names. If an
internal link for a specific ship led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended ship article, if one exists.