The Royal Navy's Arethusa name began with a French 32-gun fifth rate captured in 1759. Later sailing ships carried 38, 46, and 50 guns, while the 1817 vessel became HMS Bacchus when converted to a hulk in 1844. The 1778 fight with Belle Poule, one of the opening naval actions of the American Revolutionary War, inspired the song "The Saucy Arethusa." The name then passed to an 1882 Leander-class protected cruiser scrapped in 1905 under Fisher's reforms and to a First World War light cruiser. The 1934 ship inherited this long lineage, and a later Leander-class frigate carried the name again.
Chapter · 1:52-4:28
The long naval history behind the Arethusa name
The Arethusa name passed from an eighteenth-century French prize through sailing warships and cruisers, with a later Leander-class frigate continuing the line.