HMS Hannibal explained

Six ships and a shore establishment of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Hannibal after the Carthaginian leader Hannibal:

• was a 50-gun fourth rate launched in 1779 and captured by the French in 1782.
• was a 14-gun sloop purchased in 1782, and foundered in 1788.
• was a 74-gun third rate launched in 1786 and captured by the French during the first part of the Battle of Algeciras Bay on 5 July 1801.
• was a 74-gun third rate launched in 1810. She was on harbour service from 1825 and was broken up in 1833.
• HMS Hannibal was to have been a 90-gun second rate. She was ordered in 1840, but was cancelled and reordered as the next .
• was a 91-gun screw propelled second rate launched in 1854. She was hulked in 1874 and was sold in 1904.
• was a launched in 1896. She served as a troopship during the First World War and was sold in 1920.

Shore establishment

• was a naval base, commissioned at Algiers in 1943 and paid off in 1945. It was recommissioned in 1945 and paid off in 1946.

Hired armed vessel

• was a ship of about 16 guns that the Royal Navy hired in 1804 and lost on 16 November of that same year near Sandown, Isle of Wight.