HMS Seagull

Eight ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Seagull or HMS Sea Gull, after the gull:


 * HMS Seagull (1795) was a 16-gun brig-sloop that disappeared in the English Channel in February 1805.
 * HMS Seagull (1805) was a 16-gun Seagull-class brig-sloop that the Danes captured in 1808; she sank but the Danes recovered her and returned her to service. After the separation of Norway from Denmark, the she transferred to the Norwegian Navy, which decommissioned her in 1817.
 * HMS Seagull (1808) was a 16-gun brig-sloop, formerly the French Sylphe. The Royal Navy captured her in 1808 and sold her in 1814.
 * HMS Seagull (1831) was a 12-gun schooner broken up in 1856.
 * HMS Seagull (1855) was an Albacore-class wooden screw gunboat sold in 1864.
 * HMS Seagull (1868) was a Plover-class gunvessel sold in 1887.
 * HMS Seagull (1889) was a Sharpshooter-class torpedo gunboat converted to a minesweeper in 1909 and was sunk in a collision in 1918.
 * HMS Seagull (J85) was a Halcyon-class minesweeper launched in 1937. She became a survey ship in 1945 and was broken up in 1956.

In addition, in 1796 when the British captured Demerara, they captured, among other vessels, a 12-gun cutter, the Zeemeeuw (Seagull), which they took into service as Seagull and put under the command of a Lieutenant Lloyd; she apparently foundered soon after. She was possibly the 8th Charter Zeemeeuw, built at Zeeland and launched c.1781, which disappears from the Dutch records in 1796. Her dimensions, in Dutch feet of 11 Rotterdam inches, were 58'½ x 20' x 7' 7/11".

Notes, sources and references

 * Notes


 * Sources


 * References
 * Hepper, David J. (1994) British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. (Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot). ISBN 0-948864-30-3
 * van Maanen, Ron, Preliminary list of Dutch naval vessel built or required in the period 1700-1799. Unpublished manuscript.
 * van Maanen, Ron, Preliminary list of Dutch naval vessel built or required in the period 1700-1799. Unpublished manuscript.