Sixteen 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 Lark or HMS Larke, after the bird, the lark

Lark

Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. All species occur in the Old World, and in northern and eastern Australia; only one, the Shore Lark, has spread to North America, where it is called the Horned Lark...

:
was a pinnace

Pinnace (ship's boat)

As a ship's boat the pinnace is a light boat, propelled by sails or oars, formerly used as a "tender" for guiding merchant and war vessels. In modern parlance, pinnace has come to mean a boat associated with some kind of larger vessel, that doesn't fit under the launch or lifeboat definitions...

 in service in 1588. was an 8-gun ship captured by the Parliamentarians

Roundhead

"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...

 from the Royalists

Cavalier

Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...

 in 1656 and sold in 1663. was an 18-gun sixth rate launched in 1675 and sold in 1698. was a 42-gun fourth rate launched in 1703, rebuilt in 1726, hulked in 1742 and wrecked in 1744. was a 44-gun fifth rate launched in 1744 and sold in 1757. was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1762 and burnt to avoid being captured in 1778. was a 16-gun cutter purchased in 1779, rigged as a sloop

Sloop

A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....

 from 1781 and sold in 1784. was 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 1794. She foundered in 1809. was a 2-gun survey cutter launched in 1830 and broken up in 1860. was a Dapper-class screw 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 1855 and sold in 1878. was a survey 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....

, previously in civilian service as the Falcon. She was purchased in 1877, renamed HMS Sparrowhawk later that year and sold in 1889. was a survey schooner launched in 1880 and sold in 1887.

• HMS Lark was an sloop launched in 1879 as . She was renamed HMS Lark in 1892 and HMS Cruizer in 1893. She was sold in 1919.
• HMS Lark
  HMS Cruizer (1852)
  HMS Cruizer was a 17-gun wooden screw sloop, the name-ship of the Cruizer class of the Royal Navy, launched at the Royal Dockyard, Deptford in 1852. The spelling of her name was formally altered to HMS Cruiser in 1857. She became a sail training vessel in 1872 and was renamed HMS Lark...
  
   was a Cruizer-class
  Cruizer class sloop
  The Cruizer class was a class of 17-gun wooden screw sloops built for the Royal Navy between 1852 and 1856, comprising six vessels.-Design:...
  
   sloop launched in 1852 as . She was renamed HMS Cruiser in 1857 and HMS Lark in 1893 as a training ship. She was sold in 1912. was a Laforey-class
  Laforey class destroyer (1913)
  The Laforey class was a class of 22 torpedo boat destroyers of the Royal Navy, twenty of which were built under the Naval Programme of 1912 - 1913 and a further two under the War Emergency Programme of 1914. As such they were the last pre-war British destroyer design. All served during World War I...
  
   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...
  
  , previously named HMS Haughty but renamed shortly after being launched in 1913. She was sold in 1923. was a modified Black Swan-class
  Black Swan class sloop
  The Black Swan class and Modified Black Swan class were two classes of sloop of the Royal Navy and Royal Indian Navy. Thirteen Black Swans were launched between 1939 and 1943, including four for the Royal Indian Navy; twenty-four Modified Black Swans were launched between 1942 and 1945, including...
  
   sloop launched in 1943. She was torpedoed in 1945, salvaged by the Russians and recommissioned with them as Neptun. She was scrapped in 1956.

See also

• Hired armed lugger Lark
  Hired armed lugger Lark
  The hired armed lugger Lark served the Royal Navy from 3 January 1799 to 6 November 1801. She was armed with 2 4-pounder guns and 12 12-pounder carronades. She had a burthen of 17013/94 tons , and a crew of 50 men and boys...