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His Majesty's Ship

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His or Her Majesty's Ship (HMS) is the ship prefix used for ships of the navy in some monarchies, either formally or informally.

HMS

  • In the British Royal Navy, it refers to the King or Queen of the United Kingdom as appropriate at the time. Formerly, HBMS for His or Her Britannic Majesty's Ship was also used.[1]
  • In the Royal Swedish Navy, consequently, the prefix stands for Hans or Hennes Majestäts Skepp.

United Kingdom

Submarines in Her Majesty's service have the prefix HM Submarine. Similarly, the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was a commissioned ship in the Royal Navy, was known as HMY Britannia. Otherwise all ships in the Royal Navy are known as HM Ships, though formerly when a distinction was made between three-masted ship-rigged ships and smaller vessels they would be called HM Frigate X, or HM Sloop Y.

The prefix "HMS" is also used by shore establishments which are commissioned "stone frigates" in the Royal Navy. Examples include HMS Excellent, which is a training school located on an island in Portsmouth Harbour, and HMS Vulcan, in Caithness in the Highland area of Scotland, which is established to test the design of nuclear power systems for use in submarines.

The sample ship name used by the Royal Navy is HMS Nonsuch.[2] This is a name that has been used by the Royal Navy in the past; on the eve of World War II the name devolved to the Royal Canadian Navy. HMCS Nonsuch is at present the "stone frigate" of the Edmonton Division of the Canadian Naval Reserve.[3]

British government ships not in the Royal Navy have other designations, such as "RFA" for ships in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

Former British Empire

As one person is separately and equally monarch of each of the sixteen Realms of the Commonwealth, many other realms besides the United Kingdom use a variation of the "HMS" designation.

Current

Obsolete

  • Burma: HMBS – Her Majesty's Burmese Ship
  • South Africa: HMSAS – Her Majesty's South African Ship[4]
  • India: HMIS – Her Majesty's Indian Ship
  • Ceylon: HMCyS – His or Her Majesty's Ceylon Ship[14]
  • Pakistan: HMPS – His or Her Majesty's Pakistan Ship[14]

References

  1. ^ "www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq63-1.htm".
  2. ^ "Royal Navy".
  3. ^ "Welcome to the Naval Reserve / Bienvenue à la Réserve navale".
  4. ^ a b Australian War Memorial Glossary
  5. ^ "Jamaica Defence Force - Bases".
  6. ^ "Seemotive, Buchstabe H Letter H".
  7. ^ "Australian War Memorial - Unit Name Thesaurus".
  8. ^ The gunboat CNS (formerly HMCS) Protector; 1909 (National Library of Australia)
  9. ^ "Foundation Day oration".
  10. ^ Port-side view of the former South Australian Colonial gunboat HMAS (ex HMS, ex HMCS) Protector; 1918 (National Library of Australia)
  11. ^ "Department of the Environment and Water Resources: HMVS Cerberus".
  12. ^ "Welcome (Royal Australian Naval Reserves)".[dead link]
  13. ^ HMQS Gayundah (Aboriginal for 'lightning') and her sister ship HMQS Paluma ('thunder') (National Library of Australia)
  14. ^ a b "www.4dw.net/royalark/abbrevs.htm".

See also

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