HMS Laertes explained
Three ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Laertes, after either Laertes, a figure in Greek mythology, or Laertes, a character in Shakespeare's Hamlet:
- was a destroyer launched as HMS Sarpedon in 1913, but renamed shortly afterwards. She was sold for breaking up in 1921.
- was an armed merchant trawler of the Royal Navy. She was torpedoed and sunk by on 25 July 1942 off Freetown, Sierra Leone.
- was an launched in 1944 and broken up in 1959.