Seventeen 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 Dispatch, or the variant HMS Despatch:
was a 2-gun brigantine

Brigantine

In sailing, a brigantine or hermaphrodite brig is a vessel with two masts, only the forward of which is square rigged.-Origins of the term:...

 launched in 1691 and sold in 1712. was a 14-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 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 a 6-gun sloop captured in 1776 by the American privateer

Privateer

A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...

 Tyrannicide

Massachusetts ship Tyrannicide (1776)

Tyrannicide was a 14-gun brigantine-rigged sloop of the Massachusetts State Navy. The ship was built for the American Revolutionary War and participated in commerce raiding until destroyed in the Penobscot expedition.-John Fisk:...

. She may have been a hired ship.

• 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
  Schooner
  A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
  
   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 brig-sloop launched in 1795 and sold to the Russian Navy in 1796. was a 6-gun tender in service between 1797 and 1801. was a 14-gun sloop, previously the French privateer Indefatigable. She was captured in 1799 and sold in 1801. was an 18-gun Cruizer-class
  Cruizer class brig-sloop
  The Cruizer class was an 18-gun class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. Brig-sloops were the same as ship-sloops except for their rigging...
  
   brig-sloop launched in 1804 and broken up in 1811. was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched in 1812 and sold in 1836. was a 6-gun brig-storeship transferred from the Transport Office c. 1816. She was hulked in 1820, used as a sheer hulk from 1826 and wrecked in 1846. She was ordered to be broken up, but remained listed until 1865. was a 12-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 1851. She became Watch Vessel No. 24 under the name HMS Cadmus in 1863, and was sold in 1901. was a Danae-class
  Danae class cruiser
  The Danae or D-class was a class of light cruiser built for the Royal Navy at the end of World War I and that survived to see service in World War II.-Design:...
  
   light cruiser
  Light cruiser
  A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...
  
  launched in 1919 and sold in 1946.