HMS Dispatch

Article summary

Seventeen ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Dispatch, or the variant HMS Despatch: * was a 2-gun brigantine launched in 1691 and sold in 1712. * was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1745 and sold in 1763. * was a 14-gun sloop that foundered in a hurricane in 1772. She may have been salved and sold in 1773. * was an 8-gun sloop captured in 1776 by the American privateer . * HMS Despatch was a transport purchased in 1774 as the 6-gun armed ship . She was renamed HMS Despatch in 1777 and sold in 1783. * was a 16-gun sloop launched in 1777. She capsized in 1778. * was an 8-gun schooner purchased in 1780 and sold in 1795. * HMS Dispatch was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1779 as . She was renamed HMS Navy Transport in 1782, HMS Dispatch in 1783 and was sold in 1798. * was a sloop captured from the French in 1790 and sold in 1801. * was a 16-gun launched in 1795 and never commissioned but instead sold to the Russian Navy that year, and transferred in 1796. She was wrecked in 1805. * was a 6-gun tender in service between 1797 and 1801. * HMS Dispatch (1799) was an 18-gun sloop, previously the French privateer Indefatigable. She was captured in 1799 and sold in 1801. * was an 18-gun launched in 1804 and broken up in 1811. * was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched in 1812 and sold in 1836. She burnt at sea on 11 March 1839.…

Key claims

No claims recorded.

Discussion questions

1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

No sources recorded.