HMS Surprise
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seven ships of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Surprise or Surprise, including:
- Surprise, launched in 1794, was originally the French corvette Unité, captured in 1796 and reclassified as a sixth-rate frigate.
- Surprise, launched in 1856, was a 680 ton wooden screw gun vessel broken up in 1866.
- Surprise, launched in 1885, was the lead ship of her class of protected cruisers. She was renamed Alacrity in 1913 and served on the China station until broken up in 1919.
- Surprise, launched in 1916, was an Yarrow Later M class destroyer. She served in World War I and was sunk by a torpedo on 23 December 1917.
In fiction:
- HMS Surprise is the third novel in the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. A reference in the text to the 'cutting out' (meaning capturing while at anchor) of HMS Hermione in 1799 (a real event) indicates that the ship in the novel is intended to represent the 1794 ship. In 2003 the tall ship Rose was modified to match the lines of the 1794 Surprise to play the role of the HMS Surprise in Peter Weir's film , Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, based on O'Brian's works.
