HMS Surprise
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Seven ships of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Surprise, including:
- Surprise, launched in 1794, was originally the French corvette Unité, captured in 1796 and reclassified as a sixth-rate frigate.
- Surprise, launched in 1856, was a 680 ton wooden screw gun vessel broken up in 1866.
- Surprise, launched in 1885, was the lead ship of her class of protected cruisers. She was renamed Alacrity in 1913 and served on the China station until broken up in 1919.
- Surprise, launched in 1916, was an R-class destroyer. She served in World War I and was sunk by a mine on 23 December 1917.
In fiction:
- HMS Surprise is the third novel in the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian.
- HMS Surprise is a fictional frigate appearing in many of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels. In 2003 the tall ship Rose was re-named Surprise in honor of her role playing the HMS Surprise in the 2003 film based on O'Brian's works, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
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