Ten ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Lightning.
The first HMS Lightning (1691) was an 8-gun fire ship launched in 1691 and captured by the French in 1705.The second HMS Lightning (1740) was an 8-gun bomb vessel launched in 1740 and captured off Livorno during the War of the Austrian Succession in 1746.The 14-gun sloop HMS Viper (1746), launched in 1746, was converted to a fire ship and renamed Lightning in 1755. She was sold in 1762The 14-gun sloop HMS Sylph (1776), purchased in 1776, was converted to a fire ship and renamed Lightning in 1779. She was sold in 1783.The fifth HMS Lightning (1806) was a Thais-class fireship launched in 1806, converted to a sloop in 1808, and sold in 1816.The sixth HMS Lightning (1823), launched in 1823, was a paddle steamer. She served initially as a packet ship, but was later converted into an oceanographic survey vessel. She was used by Charles Wyville Thomson and William Benjamin Carpenter to survey the north Atlantic in 1868.The seventh HMS Lightning (1829) was an 18-gun sloop launched in 1829, renamed Larne in 1832, and broken up in 1866.The eighth HMS Lightning (1876), was a torpedo boat, built by John Thornycroft. She was the first seagoing vessel to be armed with self-propelled torpedoes. She was later known as TB-1.The ninth HMS Lightning (1895), launched in 1895, was a Janus-class destroyer. She served in World War I until she struck a mine in 1915 that sank her.The tenth HMS Lightning (G55), launched in 1940, was an L-class destroyer that served in World War II. The German motor torpedo boat S-55 torpedoed and sank her on 12 March 1943 in the Strait of Sicily.