HMS Badger

Eight ships and one shore establishment of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Badger, after the Eurasian badger:

Ships

  • HMS Badger (1745) was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1745 and lost in 1762.
  • HMS Badger (1776) was a 14-gun brig, purchased from civilian service in 1776, where she had been named Pitt. She was condemned in 1777.
  • HMS Badger (1777) was a brig purchased in 1777 and sold in 1784.
  • HMS Badger (1794) was a 4-gun gunvessel, formerly a Dutch hoy, purchased in 1794 and sold in 1802.
  • HMS Badger (1808) was 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop launched in 1808. She was used as a mooring vessel from 1835, was beached in 1860 and broken up in 1864.
  • HMS Badger (1854) was a wood screw gunboat launched in 1854. She was to have been named HMS Ranger, but was renamed prior to her launch. She was broken up in 1864.
  • HMS Badger (1872) was an Ant-class iron screw gunboat launched in 1872 and sold in 1908.
  • HMS Badger (1911) was an Acheron-class torpedo boat destroyer launched in 1911 and sold in 1921.

Shore establishment

Hired armed vessels

  • His Majesty's hired armed cutter Badger shared in the prize money for Dutch vessels captured at the Vlieter Incident on 30 August 1799.
  • His Majesty's hired armed cutter Badger served the Royal Navy under contract between 16 November 1811 and 13 May 1814.

Excise cutter

  • His Majesty's Excise Cutter Badger was recorded as capturing the French privateer lugger Calaifen between Folkestone and Dungeness on 5 December 1798.
  • His Majesty's Excise Cutter Badger brought into Yarmouth on about 16 December 1803 a French privateer armed with one swivel gun and having a crew of 35 men.
  • His Majesty's Revenue cutter Badger captured the smuggling lugger Iris on 12 November 1819 for which her commander and crew received substantial prize money.
  • His Majesty's Revenue cutter Badger captured the smuggler Vree Gebroeders a yawl-rigged cutter on 13 January 1823.

Replica

  • HMS Badger is a 36 ft (11 m) replica gunboat, converted from a Great Lakes lifeboat and launched in 2001. She operates from Penetanguishene on the Canadian side of Lake Huron.