Her Majesty's Ship


His or Her Majesty's Ship, abbreviated HMS and H.M.S., is the ship prefix used for ships of the navy in some monarchies. Derived terms such as "HMAS" and equivalents in other languages such as "SMS" are used.

United Kingdom

With regard to the separate English and Scottish navies of the middle ages and early modern era, historians usually use terms such as "English Ship" or "Scottish Ship".
During the late 17th century, following The Restoration, the name Royal Navy was officially adopted, as well as the prefix His Majesty's Ship, and later, Her Majesty's Ship. The first recorded use of the abbreviated form "HMS" was in 1789, in respect of HMS Phoenix. From 1707 to circa 1800 HBMS was also used.
Submarines in Her Majesty's service also use the prefix "HMS", standing for "Her Majesty's Submarine". The Royal Yacht Britannia, which was a commissioned ship in the Royal Navy, was known as HMY Britannia. Otherwise all ships in the Royal Navy are known as HM Ships, though formerly when a distinction was made between three-masted ship-rigged ships and smaller vessels they would be called HM Frigate X, or HM Sloop Y.
The prefix "HMS" is also used by shore establishments that are commissioned "stone frigates" in the Royal Navy. Examples include HMS Excellent, a training school located on an island in Portsmouth Harbour, and HMS Vulcan, in Caithness in the Highland area of Scotland, which is established to test the design of nuclear power systems for use in submarines.
The sample ship name used by the Royal Navy to signify a hypothetical vessel is. This is a name that has been used by the Royal Navy in the past; on the eve of World War II the name was given to the Royal Canadian Navy. HMCS Nonsuch was the "stone frigate" of the Edmonton Division of the Canadian Naval Reserve.
Prefixing the name by "the", as in "the HMS Ark Royal", while common, is considered bad grammar.
British government ships not in the Royal Navy have other designations, such as "RFA" for ships in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

Commonwealth realms and former British Empire

Historically, variants on "HMS" have been used by the navies of British colonies. The practice is maintained in several Commonwealth realms.

Current

Seiner Majestät Schiff was the ship prefix used by the Prussian Maritime Enterprise, the Prussian Navy, the Imperial German Navy and the Austro-Hungarian Navy. It was created by translating the British prefix into German.
It was sometimes also abbreviated to S.M. or SM when a ship was mentioned by class, such as S.M. Kleiner Kreuzer Emden.
Special forms included
International prefixes for ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy is HNLMS. The Netherlands navy itself uses the prefixes Zr.Ms. when a king is on the throne, and Hr.Ms. when there is a queen. This happens automatically at the moment of coronation.

Norway

The Royal Norwegian Navy vessels have since 1946 been given the ship prefix "KNM", short for Kongelig Norske Marine. In English, they are given the prefix "HNoMS", short for "His/Her Norwegian Majesty's Ship". Coast Guard vessels are given the prefix "KV" for KystVakt in Norwegian and "NoCGV" for Norwegian Coast Guard Vessel in English.

Romania

Prior to World War II & the subsequent ousting of the monarchy & occupation of the Soviet Union postwar, all Royal Romanian Navy vessels were given the prefix NMS or “His/her Majesty’s Ship”.

Sweden

In the Royal Swedish Navy, all vessels are given the prefix HMS. This is true for both surface and submarine vessels.
Abroad, Swedish navy ships are sometimes given the prefix HSwMS, to avoid confusion with other uses of the HMS prefix.