Fourteen ships and one shore establishment of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Merlin, after Merlin, the wizard in Arthurian legend :English ship Merlin (1579) was a 10-gun pinnance built in 1579 and listed until 1601. English ship Merlin (1652) was a 14-gun yacht launched in 1652 and captured by a Dutch squadron off Cadiz in 1665 while she was convoying victualing ships to Tangier; her resistance restricted the Dutch to capturing only four of her charges. HMS Merlin (1666) was an 8-gun yacht launched in 1666 and sold in 1698. HMS Merlin (1699) was a 2-gun sloop launched in 1699 and sold in 1712. HMS Merlin (1744) was a 10-gun sloop launched in 1744 and sold in 1750. HMS Merlin (1753) was a 10-gun sloop in service in 1753. HMS Merlin (1756) was a 10-gun sloop launched in 1756. She was captured by a French privateer in 1757, but recaptured later that year and renamed HMS Zephyr. The French frigate Gracieuse recaptured her in August 1778; she was disarmed and sold at Toulon in January 1780 for Lt44,200. The purchasers turned her into a privateer, which the British privateer Fame captured and burnt on 26 August 1780. HMS Merlin (1757) was a 16-gun sloop launched in 1757, having been purchased on the stocks. She was abandoned and burnt in 1777 after she grounded on a sandbank while attacking the fort on Mud Island in the Delaware River below Philadelphia. HMS Merlin (1780) was an 18-gun sloop launched in 1780, having been purchased on the stocks. She was sold in 1795. HMS Merlin (1796) was a 16-gun sloop launched in 1796 and broken up in 1803. HMS Merlin (1803) was a 16-gun sloop, previously in civilian service as Hercules. She was purchased in 1803 and sold in 1836. HMS Merlin (1838) was a 4-gun wood paddle packet launched in 1838 and sold in 1863. HMS Merlin (1871) was a composite screw gunboat launched in 1871 and sold in 1891. HMS Merlin (1901) was a Cadmus-class sloop launched in 1901. She was used as a survey vessel from 1906 and was sold in 1923.