Ten ships of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 have borne the name HMS Ariel, possibly after the archangel

Archangel

An archangel is an angel of high rank. Archangels are found in a number of religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Michael and Gabriel are recognized as archangels in Judaism and by most Christians. Michael is the only archangel specifically named in the Protestant Bible...

 Ariel

Ariel (angel)

Ariel is an archangel found primarily in Jewish and Christian mysticism and Apocrypha. Generally presented as an authority over the Earth and its elements, Ariel has also been called an angel of healing, wrath & creation....

 in Judeo-Christian mysticism, but certainly influenced by Shakespeare's "airy spirit"

Ariel (The Tempest)

Ariel is a spirit who appears in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Ariel is bound to serve the magician Prospero, who rescued him from the tree in which he was imprisoned by Sycorax, the witch who previously inhabited the island. Prospero greets disobedience with a reminder that he saved...

 of the same name:
, a 20-gun sixth rate launched in 1777, captured by the French ship Amazone in 1779 and lent to the Americans as USS Ariel until 1781. She was lost in 1793., a 16-gun sloop

Sloop-of-war

In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

 launched in 1781 and sold in 1802., an 18-gun sloop launched in 1806 and sold in 1816., a 14-gun brig

Brig

A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...

 launched in Bombay in 1809 and foundered in 1820., a Cherokee-class

Cherokee class brig-sloop

The Cherokee class was a 10-gun class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. Brig-sloops are sloops-of-war with two masts rather than the three masts of ship-sloops...

 brig-sloop launched in 1820 and wrecked in 1828 on Sable Island

Sable Island

Sable Island is a small Canadian island situated 300 km southeast of mainland Nova Scotia in the Atlantic Ocean. The island is a year-round home to approximately five people...

., a wooden paddle packet launched in 1822 and transferred to the Navy from the General Post Office

General Post Office

General Post Office is the name of the British postal system from 1660 until 1969.General Post Office may also refer to:* General Post Office, Perth* General Post Office, Sydney* General Post Office, Melbourne* General Post Office, Brisbane...

 in 1837, where she had been named Arrow. She was sold back into mercantile service in 1850., a wood screw sloop

Screw sloop

A screw sloop is a propeller-driven sloop-of-war. In the 19th century, during the introduction of the steam engine, ships driven by propellers were differentiated from those driven by paddle-wheels by referring to the ship's screws...

 launched in 1854 and sold in 1865., a second class gunboat

Gunboat

A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...

 launched in 1873, transferred to the coastguard

Her Majesty's Coastguard

Her Majesty's Coastguard is the service of the government of the United Kingdom concerned with co-ordinating air-sea rescue.HM Coastguard is a section of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency responsible for the initiation and co-ordination of all civilian maritime Search and Rescue within the UK...

 in 1877 and sold in 1889., a D-class

D class destroyer (1913)

The D class as so named in 1913 was a heterogeneous group of torpedo boat destroyers built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1890s. They were all constructed to the individual designs of their builder, John I. Thornycroft & Company of Chiswick, to meet Admiralty specifications...

 destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

 launched in 1897 and wrecked in 1907 at Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

., an Acheron-class

Acheron class destroyer

The Acheron class was a class of twenty-three destroyers of the British Royal Navy, all built under the 1910-11 Programme and completed between 1911 and 1912, which served during World War I. A further six ships were built to the same design for the Royal Australian Navy as River-class destroyers...

 destroyer launched in 1911 and sunk in 1918 in the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

.

Ariel has also been the name of a naval training shore establishment:
was a training establishment established at Warrington

Warrington

Warrington is a town, borough and unitary authority area of Cheshire, England. It stands on the banks of the River Mersey, which is tidal to the west of the weir at Howley. It lies 16 miles east of Liverpool, 19 miles west of Manchester and 8 miles south of St Helens...

 in 1942, then moved to Worthy Down

RAF Worthy Down

Worthy Down Barracks is a British Army barracks near Winchester, Hampshire. It is the headquarters and depot of the Adjutant General's Corps and is part of the Winchester Garrison...

 in 1952. It moved to RNAS Lee-on-Solent, which had been named HMS Daedalus, but was renamed Ariel in 1959. The name reverted back to HMS Daedalus in 1965.