HMS Nymph was a 14-gun Swan-class sloop of the Royal Navy launched at Chatham Dockyard on 27 May 1778. She was accidentally burnt and sank in the British Virgin Islands in 1783.
Nymph was ordered from Chatham Dockyard on 8 January 1777 and laid down there in April that year under master shipwright Israel Pownoll. She was launched on 27 May 1778 and completed by 27 July 1778. She cost a total of £8,640.13.4d to build, including money spent on fitting and coppering her. She was later fitted to carry 16 6 pounder guns by Admiralty orders of 1779 and 1780.
Nymph was commissioned in May 1778 under Commander William Denne, and served in the English Channel. She came under Commander John Blankett in January 1779 and sailed for the East Indies on 8 March that year to join Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes' East India fleet. Her role was to protect English interests and island inhabitants from French and American privateers and her duties included protecting interests in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras and serving as an escort to East India merchant convoys. In January 1780 she came under Commander William Stevens, who went on to capture the American letter of marque Racoon on 9 October 1781, and, while sailing in company with HMS Amphion, took the American privateers Royal Louis on 9 October and Rambler on 30 October 1781.
A nymph (Greek: νύμφη, nymphē) in Greek mythology and in Latin mythology is a minor female nature deity typically associated with a particular location or landform. Different from other goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young nubile maidens who love to dance and sing; their amorous freedom sets them apart from the restricted and chaste wives and daughters of the Greek polis. They are beloved by many and dwell in mountainous regions and forests by lakes and streams. Although they would never die of old age nor illness, and could give birth to fully immortal children if mated to a god, they themselves were not necessarily immortal, and could be beholden to death in various forms. Charybdis and Scylla were once nymphs.
Other nymphs, always in the shape of young maidens, were part of the retinue of a god, such as Dionysus, Hermes, or Pan, or a goddess, generally the huntress Artemis. Nymphs were the frequent target of satyrs.
In biology, a nymph is the immature form of some invertebrates, particularly insects, which undergoes gradual metamorphosis (hemimetabolism) before reaching its adult stage. Unlike a typical larva, a nymph's overall form already resembles that of the adult. In addition, while a nymph moults it never enters a pupal stage. Instead, the final moult results in an adult insect. Nymphs undergo multiple stages of development called instars.
This is the case, for example, in Orthoptera (crickets and grasshoppers), Hemiptera (cicadas, shield bugs, etc.), mayflies, termites, cockroaches, mantises, stoneflies and Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies).
Nymphs of aquatic insects, as in the Odonata, Ephemeroptera, and Plecoptera, are also called naiads, an Ancient Greek name for mythological water nymphs. In older literature, these were sometimes referred to as the heterometabolous insects, as their adult and immature stages live in different environments (terrestrial vs. aquatic).
In fly fishing with artificial flies, this stage of aquatic insects is the basis for an entire series of representative patterns for trout. They account for over half of the over all patterns regularly fished in the United States.
Nymph (Central Figure for "The Three Graces") is a bronze sculpture, by Aristide Maillol. It was modeled in 1930, and cast in 1953, it is at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
In the tradition of the Three Graces in Ancient Roman sculpture, and The Three Graces (sculpture), by Antonio Canova, it shows serenity, in contrast to his contemporary, Auguste Rodin.
HMS or hms may refer to:
HMS M30 was a Royal Navy M29-class monitor of the First World War.
The availability of ten 6 inch Mk XII guns from the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships in 1915 prompted the Admiralty to order five scaled down versions of the M15-class monitors, which had been designed to utilise 9.2 inch guns. HMS M30 and her sisters were ordered from Harland & Wolff, Belfast in March 1915. Launched on 23 June 1915, she was completed in July 1915.
Upon completion, HMS M30 was sent to the Mediterranean. Whilst enforcing the Allied blockade in the Gulf of Smyrna, HMS M30 came under fire from the Austro-Hungarian howitzer battery 36 supporting the Turkish, and was sunk on 14 May 1916.