Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2017 February 11

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February 11

Royal Navy prize naming conventions

I've been reading a bit about 18th/19th century naval fighting, and noted a surprising pattern. When the British took captured French ships into service, they nearly always kept the original French name - with exceptions when the name was already taken (usually because they had captured an older French vessel, and the French re-used the name when they build a replacement). But when the British captured USS Wasp (1807) in the War of 1812, the renamed her HMS Loup Cervier, and when they captured USS Frolic (1813), they renamed her HMS Florida. On the other hand, USS Chesapeake (1799) kept her name, as did USS President (1800). So are the two sloops just freak renamings? Or where their names already in use for other ships? --Stephan Schulz (talk) 21:30, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

HMS Wasp was taken Blueboar (talk) 21:54, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

There was an HMS Frolic (1806) which was broken up at Portsmouth in November 1813. Maybe the news - hardly earthshaking - didn't reach the capturers of USS Frolic. (Anyway, what kind of a name is Frolic for a warship?) Clarityfiend (talk) 00:07, 12 February 2017 (UTC)

Good point. Of course HMS Frolic was a brig, not a proper ship. For a brig, the name might be acceptable... --Stephan Schulz (talk) 01:02, 12 February 2017 (UTC)

Should someone who calls a brig a ship be tossed in the brig or shipped to Siberia ? StuRat (talk) 05:11, 12 February 2017 (UTC)

The US Navy used their old brigs as prison hulks, whereas the Royal Navy used theirs for training. Thus "brig" doesn't mean a place of detention to the RN. See this previous thread. Alansplodge (talk) 08:21, 12 February 2017 (UTC)