There have been five ships in the
Royal Navy to bear the name HMS Illustrious. The ship's motto is "Vox Non Incerta" which translates as "No Uncertain Sound".
HMS Illustrious (1789) was a 74-gun
third rate, and launched at Buckler's Hard in 1789. She had two engagements against the
French Navy, at
Toulon in 1793 and at
Genoa where she suffered severe damage and won a
battle honour. While returning home in tow for repairs she ran aground due to an extremely violent
storm. Shortly afterwards she was set ablaze and abandoned.
HMS Illustrious (1803) was launched at
Rotherhithe in 1803 and was like her predecessor a 74-gun third rate. She was involved in battles off the
Basque Roads, in which she won a battle honour, and off
Java in
Indonesia. In 1854 she became a training ship and continued as one until she was broken up in 1868 in
Portsmouth.
This article includes a
list of ships with the same or similar names. If an
internal link for a specific ship led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended ship article, if one exists.