HMS Zephyr explained

Nine ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Zephyr after Zephyrus, the Greek god of the west wind:

• HMS Zephyr, originally the sloop HMS Merlin, was captured by a French privateer in 1757. The British recaptured her in 1757 and the Royal Navy took her into service as Zephyr. The French frigate Gracieuse recaptured her in August 1778;^[1] she was disarmed and sold at Toulon in January 1780 for Lt44,200.^[2] The purchasers turned her into a privateer, which the British privateer Fame captured and burnt on 26 August 1780.^[3]
• , launched in 1779, was a 14-gun sloop. She was renamed Navy Transport in 1782, and then Dispatch in 1783 before being sold in 1798.
• , launched in 1795, was a 10-gun fireship. She was sold in 1808.
• , launched in 1809, was a 16-gun brig-sloop. She was sold in 1818 for breaking up.
• , launched in 1823, was a 6-gun packet-brig. She immediately became a Falmouth packet. She was sold in 1836.
• , transferred into service in 1837, was a 3-gun wooden paddle picket. She was sold in 1865 for breaking up.
• , launched in 1873, was a 4-gun composite screw gunboat. She was sold in 1889 to become a salvage vessel. She was broken up in 1929.
• , launched in 1895, was a destroyer. She was sold in 1920.
• , launched in 1943, was a Z-class destroyer. She was broken up in 1958.

Battle honours

• Quebec 1759
• Martinique 1762
• Copenhagen 1801
• Baltic 1854
• Arctic 1945

References

• • Demerliac, Alain (1996) La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA).

Notes and References

1. Hepper (1994), p.53.
2. Demerliac (1996), p.71, #447.
3. Hepper (1994), p.53.