HMS Swan (1767) was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1767. She bore the name HMS Explosion between 1779 and 1783 whilst being used as a fireship. She was sold in 1814. Between 1815 and 1840 she made 23 annual voyages as a
whaler in the Northern Whale Fishery. She also made one voyage as a whaler in the Southern Whale Fishery.
HMS Swan (1782) was an 18-gun sloop, previously purchased from civilian service in 1781 and named
HMS Bonetta. She was renamed HMS Swan in 1782, but capsized later that year.
HMS Swan (1788) was a 10-gun
cutter purchased in 1788 for the
Revenue Service, assigned to Royal Naval service in 1790 and wrecked in 1792. What happened in 1788 was that the contract system for Revenue cutters was abolished and the Collector of Customs Cowes was relieved of personal financial responsibility for upkeep of the vessel (Swan II), this responsibility was assumed by the Board of Customs.[1]
HMS Swan (1792) was a 10-gun cutter purchased in 1792 for the Revenue Service, assigned for Royal Naval service in 1795 and captured that year by the French. The vessel (Swan III) was not transferred out of the Revenue Service; when captured it was on temporary secondment to the Admiralty and running despatches during the Quiberon landings.[2] In October 1810,
HMS Owen Glendower captured the French privateer cutter Indomptable, of 16 guns and 130 men, and sent her into Plymouth. The privateer was described as the former revenue cutter Swan, of Cowes.[3] The Indomptable was more likely to be the Swan V (built 1798, captured in 1807) rather than Swan III.
HMS Swan (1811) was a 10-gun Nimble-class cutter launched in 1811 at Cowes. She had an unexceptional wartime career. After the war she served in fishery protection, and half of her entire career as a floating chapel for seamen. She was broken up in 1874.
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.