{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}} {{Use British English|date=March 2017}} Nine ships of the Royal Navy have been named '''HMS ''Zephyr''''' after Zephyrus, the Greek god of the west wind:
* HMS ''Zephyr'', originally the sloop HMS ''Merlin'', was captured by a French privateer in 1757. The British recaptured her in 1757 and the Royal Navy took her into service as ''Zephyr''. The French frigate ''Gracieuse'' recaptured her in August 1778;<ref>Hepper (1994), p.53.</ref> she was disarmed and sold at Toulon in January 1780 for Lt44,200.<ref>Demerliac (1996), p.71, #447.</ref> The purchasers turned her into a privateer, which the British privateer ''Fame'' captured and burnt on 26 August 1780.<ref>Hepper (1994), p.53.</ref> * {{HMS|Zephyr|1779}}, launched in 1779, was a 14-gun sloop. She was renamed ''Navy Transport'' in 1782, and then ''Dispatch'' in 1783 before being sold in 1798. * {{HMS|Zephyr|1795}}, launched in 1795, was a 10-gun fireship. She was sold in 1808. * {{HMS|Zephyr|1809}}, launched in 1809, was a 16-gun brig-sloop. She was sold in 1818 for breaking up. * {{HMS|Zephyr|1823}}, launched in 1823, was a {{sclass|Cherokee|brig-sloop|0}} 6-gun packet-brig. She immediately became a Falmouth packet. She was sold in 1836. * {{HMS|Zephyr|1837}}, transferred into service in 1837, was a 3-gun wooden paddle picket. She was sold in 1865 for breaking up. * {{HMS|Zephyr|1873}}, launched in 1873, was a 4-gun composite screw gunboat. She was sold in 1889 to become a salvage vessel. She was broken up in 1929. * {{HMS|Zephyr|1895}}, launched in 1895, was a {{sclass|Fervent|destroyer|0}} destroyer. She was sold in 1920. * {{HMS|Zephyr|R19}}, launched in 1943, was a Z-class destroyer. She was broken up in 1958.
==Battle honours== * Quebec 1759 * Martinique 1762 * Copenhagen 1801 * Baltic 1854 * Arctic 1945 ==Citations== {{reflist|colwidth=30em}} ==References== *{{Colledge: Ships RN|year=2006}} *Demerliac, Alain (1996) ''La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792''. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA). {{ISBN|2-906381-23-3}}
{{Ship index}} {{Italic title prefixed|3}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Zephyr, Hms}} Category:Royal Navy ship names