Eight ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Rattler:
- HMS Rattler was a 16-gun sloop launched in 1783 and sold in 1792.
- HMS Rattler was a 16-gun sloop launched in 1795 and sold in 1815.
- HMS Rattler was a 12-gun gunvessel purchased from civilian service in 1797, where she was known as Hope. She was alternatively known as 'Gunboat No. 41', and was sold in 1802.
- HMS Rattler was a wood screw sloop launched in 1843. It had been planned to name her HMS Ardent, but this was dropped in 1842. She was broken up in 1856.
- HMS Rattler was a wood screw sloop launched in 1862 and wrecked in 1868.
- HMS Rattler was a composite screw gunboat launched in 1886. She was used for harbour service from 1910, and as a training ship from 1919, when she was renamed HMS Dryad. She was sold in 1924.
- HMS Rattler was an Algerine-class minesweeper launched in 1942. She was renamed HMS Loyalty in 1943 and was sunk in 1944.
See also [link]
- HMS Rattle was a 14-gun brig listed between 1802 and 1805.
- Ships named HMS Rattlesnake
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HMS Rattler (1843)
HMS Rattler was a 9-gun wooden sloop of the Royal Navy and the first British warship to adopt a screw propeller powered by a steam engine. She was arguably the first such warship in the world—the sloop USS Princeton was launched after the Rattler, but was placed in commission much sooner.
Background
Screw propulsion had some obvious potential advantages for warships over paddle propulsion. Firstly, paddlewheels were exposed to enemy fire in combat, whereas a propeller and its machinery were tucked away safely well below deck. Secondly, the space taken up by paddlewheels restricted the number of guns a warship could carry, thus reducing its broadside. These potential advantages were well understood by the British Admiralty, but it was not convinced that the propeller was an effective propulsion system. It was only in 1840, when the world's first propeller-driven steamship, SS Archimedes, successfully completed a series of trials against fast paddle-wheelers, that the Navy decided to conduct further tests of the technology. For this purpose, the Navy built Rattler.
HMS Loyalty (J217)
HMS Loyalty was an Algerine-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy. She served during the Second World War. Commissioned in 1943, Loyalty saw action off the coast of Normandy during the Allied assault there in 1944. While performing duties off the coast, the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank.
Service
Loyalty was laid down as HMS Rattler on 14 April 1941 at Harland and Wolff, Belfast, and launched on 9 December 1942. She was commissioned on 22 April 1943, and renamed HMS Loyalty in June 1943. She was adopted by the community of Ripley, North Yorkshire after a Warship Week national savings campaign in March 1942.
After commissioning she was assigned to the 18th Minesweeping Flotilla, joining them in June 1943. She and the other ships of the flotilla carried out sweeping operations in Lyme Bay and the English Channel. She and other ships of the flotilla were transferred to Harwich in August to sweep areas of the North Sea, but was soon transferred to the 9th Flotilla, at Dover. On 25 August Loyalty was part of Operation Starkey, an attempt to attract German aircraft to unusual minesweeping operations near the French coast. The ships of the flotilla came under fire from shore batteries, and Hydra was damaged. They returned to Dover, but were mistakenly fired on by British shore batteries, causing further damage. Loyalty did not return to minesweeping duties until October.
