HMS Spencer

Two ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Spencer. A third was renamed before being launched:

• HMS Spencer was to have been an 18-gun brig sloop. She was renamed Diligence before being launched in 1795.
• HMS Spencer (1795) was a 16-gun brig-sloop, formerly the civilian Sir Charles Grey. She was purchased in 1795, renamed HMS Lilly (or Lily) in 1800, and captured by the French in 1804.^[1] She became the French privateer Général Ernouf. She blew up in 1805 while in an engagement with HMS Renard.^[2]
• HMS Spencer (1800) was a 74-gun third rate launched in 1800 and broken up in 1822.

Other

Although a website identifies an HMS Spencer as being wrecked near Falmouth in 1754,^[3] neither Colledge & Warlow, nor Hepper, have any trace of this vessel or wreck. She may have been a merchant rather than a naval vessel.

See also

• HMS Spenser
• HMS Spence