HMS Heron

Several ships of the Royal Navy has been named HMS Heron after the wading bird.

• HMS Heron, an 18 gun 340 ton sloop purchased June 1804 (and previously named Jason). Renamed HMS Volcano in 1810 following conversion to a bomb vessel. Sold on 28 August 1816.
• HMS Heron, a Cruizer class brig-sloop originally to have been called HMS Rattlesnake and launched at Upnor, Kent on 22 October 1812, and broken up in March 1831.
• HMS Heron, a 482 ton 16 gun brig launched at Chatham Dockyard on 27 September 1847 and lost at sea off West Africa on 9 May 1859.
• HMS Heron, a wooden screw Albacore-class gunboat launched at Miller's Shipyard, Liverpool on 5 July 1860 and broken up in Jamaica in 1881.
• HMS Heron, an 85 ton river gunboat equipped with two 2-pounder guns and constructed at Yarrow. Transferred to the Nigerian Government on 1 January 1899.
• HMS Heron was a 100 ton War Department tender originally called Empress. Following her transfer to the Royal Navy in 1906 she was renamed Heron. Sold in September 1923.
• HMS Heron was assigned to a 1,200 ton sloop, but the vessel had been renamed HMS Auckland by the time of her launch in 1938.
• The current HMS Heron is the Royal Navy Air Station at Yeovilton in Somerset, England
• HMS Heron II was a short-lived airfield on Little Haldon during World War II.

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 Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.