HMS Espion

Three ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Espion, meaning "spy". A fourth vessel was going to bear the name but was given ano0ther name instead:


 * HMS Espion was a 16-gun French Levrette-class cutter launched in 1781, captured in 1782 and sold in 1784.
 * HMS Espion (1709) was the 16-gun French privateer sloop Robert that the British captured in 1793. The French recaptured her in 1794, before the British recaptured her in 1795. There being another Espion in service by then, the British renamed her HMS Spy. Spy was sold in 1801.
 * HMS Espion was the French frigate Atalante, which the British captured in 1794 and later converted to a store or troopship. She was wrecked, with no loss of life, in 1799.
 * Espion was the name initially chosen for HMS Little Belt (1807).