HMS BLACK PRINCE

Five ships of the British Royal Navy have been named 'HMS ''Black Prince''', after Edward, the Black Prince (1330-1376), the eldest son of King Edward III of England.

★ The first ''Black Prince'' was a 10-gun vessel purchased by the Royalists in March of 1650, and burnt by Parliamentarians on 4 November of the same year.

★ The second ''Black Prince'' was a 74-gun third-rate launched in 1816, in use as a prison ship after 1848, and broken up 1855.

★ The third ''Black Prince'', launched in 1861, was the second ''Warrior''-class battleship. Retired to the reserve fleet in 1878; became a training ship in 1896; renamed ''Emerald'' in 1903; renamed ''Impregnable III'' in 1910; scrapped in 1923.

★ The fourth ''Black Prince'', launched in 1904, was a ''Duke of Edinburgh''-class cruiser sunk with all hands during the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

★ The fifth ''Black Prince'' (81), launched in 1942, was a ''Dido''-class (''Bellona'' subclass) cruiser that saw extensive action in World War II, following which she was transferred to the Royal New Zealand Navy in 1946. She was decommissioned in 1962 and scrapped.