HMS Lightning

Ten ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS "Lightning".

*The first "Lightning" was an 8-gun fire ship launched in 1691 and captured by the French in 1705.
*The second "Lightning" was an 8-gun bomb vessel launched in 1740 and captured off Leghorn during the War of the Austrian Succession in 1746.
*The 14-gun sloop "Viper", launched in 1746, was converted to a fire ship and renamed "Lightning" in 1755. She was sold in 1762
*The 14-gun sloop "Sylph", purchased in 1776, was converted to a fire ship and renamed "Lightning" in 1779. She was sold in 1783.
*The fifth "Lightning" was a 16-gun fire ship launched in 1806 and sold in 1816.
*The sixth "Lightning", launched in 1823, was a paddle steamer. She served initially as a packet ship, but was later converted into an oceanographic survey vessel. She was used by Charles Wyville Thomson and William Carpenter to survey the north Atlantic in 1868.
*The seventh "Lightning" was an 18-gun sloop launched in 1829, renamed "Larne" in 1832 and broken up in 1866.
*The eighth "Lightning", launched in 1877, was a torpedo boat, built by John Thornycroft. She was the first seagoing vessel to be armed with self-propelled torpedoes. She was later known as "TB-1".
*The ninth "Lightning", launched in 1895, was a "Janus"-class destroyer. She served in World War I and was sunk by a mine in 1915.
*The tenth "Lightning" (G55), launched in 1940, was an L-class destroyer that served in World War II. She was torpedoed and sunk on 12 March 1943 in the Strait of Sicily by the German torpedo boat "S-55".

References

*Colledge