HMS Intrepid explained

Eight ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Intrepid:

• was a 64-gun third rate, previously the French ship Sérieux. She was captured in 1747 and broken up by 1765.
• was a 64-gun third rate launched in 1770, used for harbour service from 1810 and sold in 1828.
• was a 16-gun sloop launched in 1780. She foundered in 1800.
• was a wood-hulled screw discovery sloop, previously the civilian Free Trade, launched in 1847 by R & H Green at Blackwall.^[1] The Navy purchased her on 28 February 1850 and briefly named her HMS Perseverance; she became HMS Intrepid in March 1850. She was abandoned, icebound, in the Arctic on 15 June 1854.^{[2] [3]}
• was a wooden screw gunvessel launched in 1855 and sold in 1864.
• was an protected cruiser launched in 1891. She was converted to a minelayer in 1910 and was sunk as a blockship in the Zeebrugge raid in 1918.
• was an launched in 1936 and sunk by air attack in 1943.
• was a launched in 1964. She was laid up in 1991 and used for spare parts before being sent for scrapping in 2008.

Battle honours

The ships named HMS Intrepid have amassed a sizeable number of battle honours.

• Minorca 1756
• Lagos 1759
• Quiberon 1759
• Havana 1762
• Martinique 1780
• Chesapeake 1781
• St Kitts 1782
• Toulon 1793
• Martinique 1809
• Zeebrugge 1918
• Atlantic 1939–41
• Dunkirk 1940
• Norway 1940
• Bismarck 1941
• Arctic 1941–43
• Malta Convoys 1942
• Sicily 1943
• Salerno 1943
• Aegean 1943
• Falkland Islands 1982

Notes and References

1. Lloyd's Register (1849), Seq.№F36.
2. Book: Banbury . Philip . Shipbuilders of the Thames and Medway . 1971 . David & Charles . Newton Abbot . 0-7153-4996-1 . 184.
3. Book: Lyon . David . Winfield . Rif . The sail & steam Navy list: all the ships of the Royal Navy, 1815-1889 . 2004 . Chatham . London . 1-86176-032-9 . 232.