Use of HMS (His/Her Majesty's Ship) use?

[Swashbuckler 1700]

I was wondering how old "HMS" prefix for RN ship is.

If the trust wiki it was used as a prefix since 1789. But it also says "HMS is the ship prefix used for ships of the navy in some monarchies, either formally or informally." . Simple Wiki Says that " It is the official prefix of Royal Navy ship names since 1789."

I take that it was it used informally before that as it seems that links it to decades earlier and to gaop.

Firstly in many books including Charles Johnson's General History navy ship are called as "His majesty's ship" which is just full version of HMS. Also in other works of the early 1700s "His majesty's ship" is used to mean navy ships

Also looking all modern sources it is used if a ship was made after mid 1600s. However it is not used of earlier ships. This lead me to think that HMS or the full form His/Her Majesty's Ship was used since 17th century and thus 1789 date means only official use of the prefix

E.g here from 1724 edition of GHOP

http://150.216.68.252:8080//adore-djatoka/resolver?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=http://150.216.68.252/ncgre000/00000018/00017001/00017001_ac_0022.jp2&svc_id=info:lanl-repo/svc/getRegion&svc_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:jpeg2000&svc.format=image/jpeg&svc.level=3&svc.rotate=0&svc.region=0,0,308,375

Also the full form of HMS appear in Woodes' Roger's book

A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712 edition)

http://books.google.fi/books?id=J1xCAAAAcAAJ&hl=fi&hl=fi&pg=PA10&img=1&zoom=3&sig=ACfU3U1D4Yo0xk5nlBjhDco0X8P4i6QAAw&ci=64%2C66%2C826%2C533&edge=0

plus other period works

Also titles of RN ship paintings in National maritime museum gallery have HMS if they are made after mid 1600s

e.g here http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/15216.html

Also here is said this Some, but apparently not all, other navies also use prefixes with their ships' names. Perhaps the best known of these is "HMS" (His or Her Majesty's Ship), long used by the Royal Navy. In earlier times this was also seen as "HBMS," for "His Britannic Majesty's Ship."

But how old is the use of HMS in Royal Navy? THe full from of it was certainly used in Gaop and the prefix is connected to vessels which sailed after mid 17th century... but the question remains.

Edited August 13, 2013 by Swashbuckler 1700