Why Do British Ships Have HMS In Their Names?

Great Britain, unsurprisingly for an island nation that sees a legendary amount of rain, has quite the water affinity. There's just no separating the British from their seafaring heritage, as has been the case ever since the notorious King Henry VIII established the Royal Navy. His daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, later used it to defeat the Spanish Armada, the sort of feat that continues to give the British all sorts of waves-ruling notions centuries later.

One curious thing about British ships you might have noticed is their names, and the prefix "HMS." The reason for this, as would surely please the covetous Henry, is that this is an abbreviation of His Majesty's Ship. Should the current monarch be female instead, it would be Her Majesty's Ship, just as the U.K. national anthem "God Save The King" (or "God Save the Queen") is conveniently interchangeable, too.

Naming conventions for ships, however, are more complicated than you might think. We've already answered what SS means on ships. Though iconic British vessels such as HMS Victory — on which Adm. Horatio Nelson triumphed at the Battle of Trafalgar — bear the prefix, not all ships from the U.K. do. Technically, it isn't only British ships that bear it either, as Commonwealth nations also adapt this term in their own navies.

There's no British ship better known than the Titanic. This mighty vessel of the British White Star Line was built in the Northern Ireland capital of Belfast, and was as huge in stature as it remains in cultural significance. However, it was officially designated RMS Titanic rather than HMS Titanic. RMS stands for Royal Mail Ship, a designation originally used in the mid-19th century. It was officially used, as the name would suggest, by vessels charged with carrying the mail. Big ships such as Titanic (which was carrying no less than 3,364 sacks of mail, according to The Postal Museum) were well suited to the role. The designation HMS, then, is primarily for commissioned ships of the British Royal Navy. 

Since 1913's Ships' Names Committee, there has been a British body in charge of naming vessels. One factor that influences decision making is that living people's names are to be avoided, unless those people are higher-ranking members of the royal family. HMS Queen Elizabeth, one of the largest warships in military history, would appear to be one of those exceptions, having been commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II, but this is actually not the case. The UK Defense Journal quotes a Royal Navy contact as explaining, "The carrier isn't named after her majesty, she's named after the first Queen Elizabeth from Tudor times, it's also why our crest is the Tudor rose."

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland comprises England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In close association with them are the countries that make up the Commonwealth — 56 independent nations from Australia and New Zealand to Canada, Jamaica, India, Pakistan, and 21 countries across Africa. 

On top of the U.K, Charles III is king of 14 more of them: Solomon Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Australia, Jamaica, Belize, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Grenada, Tuvalu, St. Lucia, Canada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Bahamas. You might think this means that ships of the Canadian, Jamaican, or Australian navies also bear the HMS prefix, but they use alternative takes on it, making their connection clear while highlighting their independence. 

So Canadian naval vessels bear the prefix HMCS, for His/Her Majesty's Canadian Ship, while the Jamaican naval force uses His/Her Majesty's Jamaican Ship, or HMJS. In the Royal Bahamas Defence Force it's HMBS, or His/Her Majesty's Bahamian Ship. The nine ships of the New Zealand Defense Force use HMNZS, short for His/Her Majesty's New Zealand Ship, and the equivalent for Australian naval ships is HMAS, or His/Her Majesty's Australian Ship. Papua New Guinea offers the longest variation on this, His/Her Majesty's Papua New Guinea Ship, or HMPNGS, while Tuvalu uses HMTSS. 

Some Commonwealth nations, however, don't follow this practice. Pakistan's navy uses Pakistan Naval Ship, for example, and India uses Indian Naval Ship, or PNS and INS respectively.