Does a ship's reputation pass to its namesake?

Does a ship's reputation or 'machine spirit' always transfer with its name?

Successive namesakes can have very different records. Warspite, Dreadnought, and Prince of Wales provide contrasting examples of the apparent continuity and changes in a ship name's fortunes.

Warspite is offered as a relatively consistent example of an inherited reputation, while Dreadnought and Prince of Wales illustrate how differently successive namesakes can fare. Some Prince of Wales ships are remembered as successful, while others suffered conspicuously bad luck. A pair of namesakes provides little material for this sort of comparison; a name reused seven, eight, or more times offers a longer historical record. Frequent name reuse makes the Royal Navy a useful source of examples.