Undaunted, on the Is.9d. stamp, is a name dating back to 1794 when the French storeship Royaliste, a sixth-rate of 28 guns, was captured by a British squadron at Martinique on March 17, in that year and became the first ship of the name in the Royal Navy. The prize was sold in the following year. (Another authority however gives the name of the French ship as the Bienvenue.
The second Undaunted was also a French ship, the fifth-rater Arethuse, captured at Toulon on August 29, 1793 and renamed Undaunted in 1795. This 38-gun vessel of 1064 tons was wrecked on the Morant Keys, West Indies, on August 27, 1796. Undaunted (III) was also a renamed prize, this time a Dutch vessel, captured on August 3, 1794, and sold in 1800. The first Undaunted to be built for the Royal Navy, and the fourth of the name was a fifth-rate of 38 guns, 1,086 tons builder's measurement, with dimensions 155 ft. x 40 ft., built at Woolwich Dockyard in 1807, used as a target ship in 1856, and broken up in 1860. Napoleon was conveyed to Elba in, this ship in 1814.
Undaunted (V) followed in 1861, a wooden screw frigate of 3,039 tons, builder's measurement with a length of 250 ft., beam 52 ft., built at Chatham. She was in service until 1882 and broken up. The sixth of the name was an armoured cruiser of 5,600 tons, 300 ft. x 56 ft., with 2-9.2 in., 10-6 in., and 10-3 pdrs. She was built by Palmers in 1886 and sold in 1907.
The seventh was a light cruiser, 3,500 tons, 410 x 39 ft., armed with 2-6 in., 6-4 in. guns. Built by Fairfield in 1914, she was sold in April 1923, to John Cashmore, of Newport for breaking up.
The next of the name (eighth) was the submarine Undaunted, a U-class vessel, built by Vickers-Armstrongs, at Barrow in 1940, and sunk off Libya from an unknown cause on May 13, 1941. Next of the line was the destroyer (later frigate) Undaunted, 1,710 tons, 3391/2ft. x 36 ft., carrying 4-4.7, and 2-40 mm. guns and eight torpedo tubes. Built by Cammell Laird in 1943, she was converted to a frigate in 1954. The name has also been given to a naval tug and trawler.
Battle honours: Guadeloupe 1794, China 1900, Dogger Bank 1915, Belgian Coast 1916, Normandy 1944, Okinawa 1945.
Sea Breezes December 1969.
Ascension SG123