HMS Merlin

Fourteen ships and one shore establishment of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS "Merlin", after Merlin, the wizard in Arthurian legend:

*HMS|Merlin|1579|6 was a 10-gun pinnance built in 1579 and listed until 1601.
*HMS|Merlin|1652|6 was a 14-gun yacht launched in 1652 and captured by the Dutch in 1665.
*HMS|Merlin|1666|6 was an 8-gun yacht launched in 1666 and sold in 1698.
*HMS|Merlin|1699|6 was a 2-gun sloop launched in 1699 and sold in 1712.
*HMS|Merlin|1744|6 was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1744 and sold in 1750.
*HMS|Merlin|1753|6 was a 10-gun sloop in service in 1753.
*HMS|Merlin|1756|6 was a 10-gun sloop launched in 1756. She was captured by the French in 1757, but recaptured later that year and renamed HMS "Zephyr". She was again captured by the French in 1778, but recaptured again and burnt in 1780.
*HMS|Merlin|1757|6 was a 10-gun sloop launched in 1757, having been purchased on the stocks. She was abandoned and burnt in 1777.
*HMS|Merlin|1780|6 was an 18-gun sloop launched in 1780, having been purchased on the stocks. She was sold in 1795.
*HMS|Merlin|1796|6 was a 16-gun sloop launched in 1796 and broken up in 1803.
*HMS|Merlin|1803|6 was a 16-gun sloop, previously in civilian service as "Hercules". She was purchased in 1803 and sold in 1836.
*HMS|Merlin|1856|6 was a wood paddle packet launched in 1856 and sold in 1863.
*HMS|Merlin|1871|6 was a composite screw gunboat launched in 1871 and sold in 1891.
*HMS|Merlin|1901|6 was a "Cadmus" class sloop launched in 1901. She was used as a survey vessel from 1906 and was sold in 1923.
*HMS "Merlin" was an air station of the Royal Naval Air Service, at Donibristle, Fife. It was a former RAF station, but was transferred and commissioned in 1939, and was paid off in 1959.