A guard ship is a warship stationed at some port or harbour to act as a guard, and in former times in the Royal Navy to receive the men impressed for service. She usually was the flagship of the admiral commanding on the coast.
A guard-boat is a boat which goes the round of a fleet at anchor to see that due watch is kept at night.
In Soviet terminology a guard ship (Storozhevoj Korabl') is a small, general purpose patrol and/or escort vessel.
An example of a guard ship is HMS Clyde (P257) which is stationed in the Falkland Islands.
Famous quotes containing the words guard and/or ship:
“Ye Mariners of England
That guard our native seas!
Whose flag has braved a thousand years
The battle and the breeze!”
—Thomas Campbell (1774–1844)
“We were all on this ship in the sixties, our generation, a ship going to discover the New World. And the Beatles were in the crow’s nest of that ship.”
—John Lennon (1940–1980)