WW1 RN Ship Names

[PhilB]

Reference was made today on radio to the RN frigate Iron Duke. Now, I`m not an ex-sailor but names like Iron Duke are fixed in my mind as WW1 dreadnoughts. It would seem fitting to transfer the name to another capital ship but not to a lower rate. I appreciate that the modern frigate probably has more fire power than the dreadnoughts but it just doesn`t have the oomph of the big ship. Anyway there are plenty of good old frigate names that could be re-used. Any views?

[per ardua per mare per terram]

Before the Great War the name HMS Orion had been used for a Second Rate; in WWI was a Dreadnought; in WW2 the name was used for a cruiser post war for a submarine. We no longer have a First (or even Second or Third) Rate Navy, as we no longer have operational battleships, so I suppose the names have to be applied to the few ships that we do have.

[sotonmate]

Phil

We should thank our lucky stars we still have a few ships left which might equate to an old-fashioned Squadron,and,that the powers that be have not "modernised" the naming ! Viz:

HMS Prince Andrew (has a putting green on the heli deck)

HMS Prince Charles (has an organic greenhouse atop the Bridge)

HMS ,well,you can have a go now ! I was thinking deserving politician,but hit a brick wall.

I trust the Iron Duke will dispose of the oky-coky thoughtfully and irrevocably,but well done,a heap off the streets.

Sotonmate

[healdav]

I don't think there are any rules about applying ships names.

Dreadnought was last used for the RN's first nuclear submarine.

Repulse was a Polaris submarine, and so on.

As far as I remember the names given are suitable for a particular class of ship and what is available.

Remember that when a ship is declared a war grave the name is not used again.

[David B]

It is a common occurrence to use names that have been around for a couple of hundred years but not necessarily transferring the name to the same class of ship.

In the Aust navy they use names - most commonly names of cities and towns, that have been used before. e.g. HMAS Sydney is the fourth ship to have carried

the name.

[Gibbo]

Iron Duke is a Duke class frigate so the choice for her name would have been Iron Duke or Wellington. The WWII sloop HMS Wellington is still afloat, being moored on the Thames as the HQ ship of the Homourable Company of Master Mariners, which may prevent reuse of the name?

For a while, nuclear submarines were given traditional battleship names but some of the more recent ones have been named after WWII submarines.

Surely the HMS Repulse sunk in WWII is a war grave?