HMS Buzzard

Four Royal Navy ships and two bases have been named HMS "Buzzard" after the bird of the same name:

hips

*The first "Buzzard" was originally a French vessel named "Lutine" captured in the Leeward Islands in 1806 and renamed HMS "Hawke". She was renamed "Buzzard" in 1813 and sold in 1815.
*The second "Buzzard" was a 237-ton Cherokee class brigantine, built in Portsmouth, which spent most of her career engaged in patrols against the Atlantic slave trade; James Covey, who played a key role in the Amistad court case, was a sailor on board this vessel. A picture of this ship capturing the slaver "Formidable" on 17 December 1834, by William John Huggins, is in the National Maritime Museum. 707 slaves were rescued but only around 400 survived. The vessel was sold in 1843.
*The third "Buzzard" was a wooden paddle sloop, launched in 1849 and commissioned on 7 May 1852. It was broken up in 1883.
*The fourth "Buzzard" was a "Nymphe"-class composite screw sloop launched in 1887, renamed HMS "President" in 1911 and sold in 1921.

hore Bases

*RAF Lympne, Kent hosted HMS "Buzzard" from 1937 to 1940. [cite web|url=http://www.historicaircraftcollection.ltd.uk/nimrod/|title=Historic Aircraft Collection website|accessdate=2008-08-30]
*Later during the Second World War, HMS "Buzzard" was the name of a naval air station in Port Royal, Jamaica.

References

*colledge

External Links

* [http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/B2.HTM Sailing ships of the Royal Navy] for information about the 1813 and 1834 "Buzzards"
* [http://www.nmm.ac.uk/searchbin/searchs.pl?exhibit=it0562b&axis=1165795200&flash=&dev= Huggins' picture of the "Buzzard" of 1834]
* [http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowShip.php?id=2336 Information on the 1834 Buzzard]
* [http://home.wxs.nl/~pdavis/Log_Buzzard.htm Log of the 1852 "Buzzard"]