HMS Albion explained

Nine ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Albion after Albion, an archaic name for Great Britain:

• was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line launched in 1763. She was converted into a floating battery in 1794 and was wrecked in 1797.
• was the mercantile Albion launched at Sunderland in 1797 that the Royal Navy purchased in 1798 for service as a sloop. The Navy sold her at Sheerness in 1803. She became a transport. It is possible that she foundered in August 1808.
• was a 74-gun third rate launched in 1802. She was used for harbour service from 1831 and was broken up in 1836.
• was a 90-gun second rate launched in 1842. She was converted to screw propulsion in 1861 and was broken up in 1884.
• was a Canopus-class pre-dreadnought battleship launched in 1898 and sold in 1919.
• was a Centaur-class aircraft carrier launched in 1947. She was converted into a commando carrier in 1962, sold in 1973, resold later that year and then broken up.
• is an Albion-class Landing Platform Dock ship launched in 2001 and currently in service.

Other RN vessels named "Albion" were;

• Albion II, an armed trawler taken up in 1915 and sunk by a mine in 1916.
• Albion II, a Bristol paddle steamer used for minesweeping in 1915.
• Albion III, a steam yacht, taken up from 1916 to 1919.

Hired armed vessels

• Between 27 April 1793 and 11 September 1794, the Navy employed a ship named Albion, of 393 tons burthen.
• During the period of the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy twice hired armed cutters named Albion, though these are probably the same vessel. See: Hired armed cutter Albion.

Battle honours

• Algiers 1816
• Navarino 1827
• Crimea 1854-5
• Dardanelles 1915

References

• • Book: Rif . Winfield . British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates . Seaforth Publishing. 2008 . 978-1-86176-246-7.