Nelson & His World

Who decided on the name of a Royal Navy ship in Nelson's day? Captured enemy ships retained their original names, I believe. Was this invariably the case or did some ships receive new English names?

I believe it was the Board of Admiralty who decided the names, i.e. the Sea Lords. Certainly by the 19th century it was established that the Third Sea Lord, who was responsible for new construction, would suggest names, and submit these to other Lords before "..they were laid before the King" who would give the final approval. This was replaced by a Committee in the First World War. This committee still exists and they still have to receive final approval from the monarch.

As to captured ships, Manning & Walker ("British Warship Names") say "...when a captured ship was pronounced fit for further service she was added to our Navy, and if her name was neither already in use nor too difficult for an Englishman to twist his tongue around, it was often left unchanged....sometimes, it was considered preferable to translate a foreign name into English...Glory (Gloire) and Renown (Renomee) being two notable examples....when as occasionally happened it became necessary to choose an entirely fresh name, this usually had some association with the old one,or the circumstances under which its bearer had been captured. Thus the Hebe was renamed Ganymede and the Franklin, captured at the Nile, Canopus"

There was also a penchant for giving ships either classical names, ones which denoted a human quality – and also, in the case of some vessels, a destructive quality! This was so in quite a few navies which today, and probably then, has led to some confusion, particularly if vessels with the same name are present at the same action!

I think to some extent, superstition has also a part to play here (and sailors were traditionally somewhat adept in this field!) Therefore it was often considered unlucky to change a ship's name if it could be avoided. Nothing to do particularly with captured ships but conversely, some names were considered unlucky if a previous ship had come to grief. An example is of course with Victory. It was some little while before their Lordships finally approved of the use of name for the new ship – prompted by the sinking of the previous Victory, with such large loss of life, in 1744.

In some cases it would seem that some classical names were used, even though seamen had difficulty in getting their names around it – which would seem to suggest that this was not a valid reason for changing the name! We can also think here of the famous, British-built, Bellerophon, known as the 'Billy Ruffian' to her crew.

In the late 1790's gunboats and gunvessels were given names ending in ----er; it is believed that they were named after the pack of hounds belonging to Earl Spencer, who was then First Lord of the Admiralty

Many thanks for those comments.

It is actually my dream to launch a ship - likely never to be fulfilled, (sigh).