CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

HMS Theseus

Wikimedia disambiguation page

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 25, 2025
Entity authorityQ4040263
Source-derived summary

There have been a number of warships in the Royal Navy that have borne the name HMS Theseus, from a wooden frigate to a light fleet carrier. The name comes from Theseus, a king of ancient Athens.

HMS Theseus (1786) was a 74-gun third-rate ship-of-the-line, launched in 1786. She took part in the Battle of the Nile and the Battle of the Basque Roads in 1809. She was broken up at Chatham in 1814.

HMS Theseus (1892) was a protected cruiser of the Edgar class and was launched in 1892. She was involved in World War I and scrapped in 1921.

HMS Theseus (R64) was a Colossus-class light fleet carrier that was built in 1944 and was involved in the Korean War and the Suez Crisis. She was scrapped in 1962.

Editorial summary

“HMS Theseus” enters the record as wikimedia disambiguation page. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Theseus, Wikimedia and disambiguation can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1786, 1809, 1814, 1892—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Theseus, Wikimedia and disambiguation.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“HMS Theseus” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Theseus, Wikimedia and disambiguation provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 25, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4040263. The first chronological checks are 1786, 1809, 1814 and 1892.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “HMS Theseus”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow HMS Theseus primary sources, HMS Theseus archive and Theseus research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “HMS Theseus”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from HMS Theseus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.