HMS Badger

Eight ships and one shore establishment of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Badger, after the Eurasian Badger:

Ships

• HMS Badger was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1745 and lost in 1762.
• HMS Badger was a 14-gun brig, purchased from civilian service in 1776, where she had been named Pitt. She was condemned in 1777.
• HMS Badger was a brig purchased in 1777 and sold in 1784.
• HMS Badger was a 4-gun gunvessel, formerly a Dutch hoy, purchased in 1794 and sold in 1802.
• HMS Badger was 10-gun Cherokee class brig-sloop launched in 1808. She was used as a mooring vessel from 1835, was beached in 1860 and broken up in 1864.
• HMS Badger was a wood screw gunboat launched in 1854. She was to have been named HMS Ranger, but was renamed prior to her launch. She was broken up in 1864.
• HMS Badger was an Ant class iron screw gunboat launched in 1872 and sold in 1908.
• HMS Badger was an Acheron class torpedo boat destroyer launched in 1911 and sold in 1921.

Shore Establishment

• HMS Badger was commissioned in 1939 as the headquarters of the Flag Officer In Charge, Harwich. The site was decommissioned in 1946, but the facility remained an emergency port control until 1992.
• HMS Badger is a 35ft replica gunvessel, launched in 2001 and still in operation.

Excise cutter

• On 5 December 1797, His Majesty's Excise cutter Badger, under the command of Thomas R. Ridge, captured the French privateer lugger Calaifen between Folkstone and Dungeness. The privateer was armed with four guns and had a crew of 18 men under the command of Citizen Jacques Guillaume Lamey. She was a new vessel, 18 hours out of Calais, and had not taken any prizes.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.