HMS Stirling Castle is a crucial part of the Royal Navy moving from traditional minehunting to embracing cutting-edge technology to take our people out of the minefield and replace them with remotely-operated and autonomous systems.
HMS Stirling Castle is at the forefront of the Royal Navy’s mine hunting capabilities, extending the reach and scope of operations to locate and destroy mines.
The ship is home to high-tech equipment, including autonomous surface vessels and uncrewed underwater vehicles, and the Royal Navy teams who operate them.
Stirling Castle can be used to store, prepare, deploy and recover autonomous boats and underwater systems for mine warfare.
A 70-gun third-rate ship of the line built as part of the ‘Thirty Ships Programme’ called for in 1677 by Samuel Pepys to bring the Navy back to full strength after the Third Anglo-Dutch War. She was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands in the Great Storm of 1703.
A 70-gun third-rate ship of the line, which was one of four replacements after the Great Storm. She deployed to the Mediterranean but was broken up in Portsmouth in 1714 before being rebuilt and serving off Spain and home waters until 1735. Fitted as a hulk, she continued as such until being broken up in 1771.
A 70-gun third-rate ship of the line with an industrious career in the Mediterranean, the West Indies and North America. Scuttled in Havana in 1762 after seeing action in the capture of Quebec in 1759, Martinique and then Havana.
A 64-gun third-rate ship of the line lost in a hurricane off San Domingo in 1780 with only five survivors.
A 74-gun third-rate ship of the line hulked in 1839. She carried the new Viceroy, Lord Moira, to India, but was reduced to a hulk at the end of the Napoleonic Wars and served a convict ship until being broken up in 1861.
Acquired in 2022 for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and redesignated HMS Stirling Castle in July 2025.
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