A system of grading the fighting ships of the Monarch’s navy into several ranks or ratings appears to date from the start of the Stuart era. Certainly the ships of the Elizabethan navy were perceived to undertake different roles depending on their size and strength, and the Tudors would generally refer to the largest of their galleons as ‘Great Ships’. Yet it was only from James I’s accession that any formal system of classification was established, with the ‘Great Ships’ being clearly separated from the ‘Middling Ships’ and ‘Small Ships’, with even smaller craft being described as ‘pinnaces’ (as distinct from ‘ships’).

It was during this reign that the largest of the Great Ships – those that usually served as the flagships of the fleet – began to be separated from the other Great Ships by the designation ‘Ships Royal’ or ‘Royal Ships’. The 1618 Jacobean Commission of Enquiry into the state of the ships of the King’s ‘Navy Royal’ (the term ‘Royal Navy’ was not generally used until after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660) made a clear distinction between the Ships Royal and the lesser category of Great Ships. Of the former their Report stated that ‘the former navies had but four Royal ships, which were held sufficient for the honour of the state, as being more than the most powerful nations by sea had heretofore…’.

When King James I came to the throne in 1603 there were actually six such Royal Ships in existence, all of them former galleons which had been built or rebuilt in the previous twenty-three years. Three of these had actually been built originally at the very start of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, all by the Master Shipwright Matthew Baker in the Royal Dockyard at Woolwich. Initially these were all ‘high-charged’ galleons, built on the Spanish model with a towering superstructure aft, and poor sailing qualities. However, towards the end of his long career Baker rebuilt all three along the lines which had proved so successful for smaller galleons during Elizabeth’s reign, with lower superstructures and better performance under sail.

Nevertheless, by 1618 the Triumph and Elizabeth Jonas were laid up in dock at Woolwich and unserviceable, so that they were to be sold to the highest bidder prepared to break them up at their own expense. Plainly it was felt that the remaining four provided a sufficient number of these prestige vessels, for the Commission judged that no replacement Royal Ships should be built, while instead an increase should be made in the number of Great Ships of 650 tons each – perceived at this time to be the most cost-effective size for naval combat. The third of Baker’s elderly trio, the White Bear was retained under the Commission’s proposals in 1618, but by 1627 she was noted as being unserviceable, and was sold to be broken up at Rochester in June 1629.

Two of the remaining ships dated from the late 1580s, but were both rebuilt in James’s reign. The Anne Royal was originally built as a private warship for Elizabeth’s favoured courtier, Sir Walter Ralegh, but was requisitioned for the Crown before completion. She was undocked on 29 June 1608 following her rebuilding; as the former Ark Royal, she had great appeal in the popular mind. She lasted until she accidentally bilged on her own anchor while mooring in the Thames and sank off Tilbury Hope on 9 April 1636; the wreck was raised and broken up at Blackwall. The Merhonour was undocked on 6 March 1615 after being rebuilt in turn, also at Woolwich (all ‘Royal Ship’ construction and rebuilding took place here during the first 60 years of the seventeenth century). The last Elizabethan capital ship to survive, she was still acclaimed as one of the navy’s fastest ships in 1635, but by 1637 she was recorded as being ‘generally decayed’, and it was initially planned to rebuild her again. This rebuilding never occurred, and the rotting hulk was finally sold at Chatham by the Commonwealth’s administration in 1650.

The final Ship Royal extant in 1618 was the only major warship to be built under James I, and it had its origins in another of Elizabeth’s Great Ships, the Victory. This had actually been built as a merchant ship, the Great Christopher, and had been purchased for the queen in 1560, renamed and refitted as a warship. The Victory had already been rebuilt once, in 1587, before serving as Sir John Hawkins’s flagship during the campaign against the Spanish Armada. By 1606 she was in need of a fresh rebuilding, and was removed from Chatham to Woolwich Dockyard for that purpose.

Enter the ambitious young Master Shipwright at Chatham, Phineas Pett, the latest generation of one of the major shipbuilding families of the Elizabethan age, the Petts. His father Peter and brother Joseph had undertaken the construction of several of the Great Ships of the 1580s, and Phineas himself had been apprenticed to Matthew Baker in 1595, receiving a thorough grounding in the more scientific techniques which Baker had brought to the art of ship construction. In an age when every contract depended upon patronage, Pett secured the support of the powerful Lord Charles Howard, the Earl of Nottingham and Lord High Admiral from 1585 until 1619. In 1607 Howard persuaded James to entrust to Pett the rebuilding of the Victory at Woolwich.

Matthew Baker’s ‘Ships Royal’ 1557–1564 – construction history, burthen tonnage and dimensions in feet

Given the age of the ship, Pett decided that it would be better to replace the Victory than to rebuild her. Following the arrival of peace with Spain, little had been done to modernise the navy: two smaller galleons had been rebuilt, and Pett had already been allowed to rebuild the Ark Royal – which had been Howard’s flagship against the Armada – at Woolwich. Pett knew what initiative had enabled him to secure that responsibility – on Howard’s instruction he had built a 28ft long model of the Ark Royal showing how she would look after rebuilding, and he now determined to use the same ploy. No new warship had been sanctioned since James’s accession to the throne, so he would need to ensure the monarch’s support.

Accordingly Pett built a model of how he believed the new warship should appear, and arranged for Howard to take him and the model along to Richmond Place, where he presented it as a gift to Henry, the 10-year-old Prince of Wales. Henry was entranced by the model, and hastened to show it to his father. James confessed himself equally delighted, and closely questioned Pett as to its features, asking the shipwright if and how it could be built. The upshot was that Pett was instructed in November 1607 to build a new Victory instead of rebuilding the old ship.

Pett faced great opposition from the naval establishment, even from his former mentor Matthew Baker, who questioned whether the ship could be safely built in the form that Pett envisaged. He faced a barrage of criticism, both as regards the new ship and about his own ability and integrity, but nevertheless survived the inquisition and finally laid down the elm keel of the new warship in Woolwich Dockyard in October 1608.

THE PRINCE ROYAL

The new ship would be the largest in the navy, initially estimated to be of some 1200 tons burthen, with a keel 115ft long, and a breadth of 43½ft. But it was not the largest warship to be built in England up till then. As far back as 1415 Henry V had ordered the construction of a large and powerful warship designed to protect his lines of communication across the narrows of the English Channel. Named the Grace Dieu in celebration of his recent battle, she measured 184ft along her deck, and 50ft in breadth, and was built in Southampton by a master shipwright named Huggekyns between 1416 and July 1418. Henry VIII’s prestigious Henry Grâce à Dieu (popularly called the Great Harry), a huge four-master, begun in 1514 and completed in 1516, allegedly measured 1600 tons when first built (on rebuilding in 1539–40, now with a double tier of gunports, this was reduced to a more modest 1000 tons). However, Pett’s creation was undoubtedly the largest English ship built in almost a century.

Not only was the ship to be the first to carry two complete rows of guns, but she was also structurally a three-decker, with a complete upper deck, although at this time it carried only a few guns. In relation to decks, however, the term ‘complete’ requires some qualification: due to considerable sheer (the curve of a ship’s structure upwards from the waist towards both bow and stern, particularly the latter), a continuous deck at this time would have risen to a level aft where heavy guns would have reduced the ship’s stability. Consequently, in its first manifestation the lower deck of the vessel was stepped down by half a level as it approached the stern, so that the aftermost guns would be carried at the same height above the waterline as those in the waist.

In total, she would carry 51 heavy guns mounted on carriages – 6 demi-cannon, 12 culverins, 18 demi-culverins and 13 sakers, as well as 2 antiquated cannon-perriers for throwing stone shot, plus 4 smaller port-pieces (wrought-iron weapons on swivel mountings for anti-personnel use). While no record exists of the disposition of this ordnance, it is probable that the larger and heavier demicannon, culverins and perriers were carried on the lower deck, the demi-culverins on the middle deck, and the sakers on the upper deck, the latter bearing guns only below the quarterdeck and forecastle, so that this deck was unarmed in the open waist.

Inevitably, the form of the ship was a transitional stage between the Elizabethan galleon and the future ship of the line. In appearance it is clear that Pett’s ship was a traditional galleon in profile, with a pronounced low beak, a high beakhead bulkhead in front of a prominent forecastle, and an upwards-sloping quarterdeck and poop. Her rig seemed retrograde, with a fourth (bonaventure mizzen) mast, whereas the Merhonour and other Great Ships of the 1590s had dispensed with this and were three-masted. Both the mizzen and bonaventure masts carried a simple lateen sail, with no topsails; only the fore and main masts carried square courses (lower sails), topsails and topgallants.

As with all the prestige ships of the seventeenth century, the Prince Royal was lavishly decorated, with elaborate carvings and extensive gilding. Her prow carried a figurehead of a mounted Saint George with his sword raised high to do battle against tyrannical dragons. She typified the capital ship of the period, designed to impress and overawe all potential rivals. Sadly, barely two years after her christening, the young Prince after whom she was named died of typhoid, and his younger brother Charles became heir to James’s throne.

For all her impressive statistics, which silenced those who had challenged Pett’s competence, the new super-ship had flaws which came to light over the next decade. To some degree this can be attributed to the notorious corruption within the dockyards, which led to the Commission of 1618, but by 1621 the Prince Royal had to be docked for a major refit, at the cost of £6000, partly to replace rotten timbers that had been used in her construction, but also to correct some of the design flaws. She emerged with notably reduced sheer, so that the stepped-down deck aft could be altered and for the first time the ship had completely flush decks from stem to stern; the open waist was also filled in, with additional guns to produce three continuous tiers. Another lesser refit (for under £1000) followed in 1623, with the cookroom relocated from a platform in the hold to a new position under the forecastle (a move Pett strongly resisted).

Charles I succeeded his father in 1625, and following this the formal classification of the king’s ships as altered so that the Royal Ships were designated ‘First Rank’ ships, while the other Great Ships, Middling Ships and Small Ships were categorised as ‘Second Rank’, ‘Third Rank’ and ‘Fourth Rank’ respectively. The word ‘Rank’ would subsequently be altered to ‘Rate’, while the smallest rate would, by mid-century, be split again into Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Rates. The surviving four Royal Ships of 1618 thus became the First Rates of 1626.

At this date the distinction between the Ranks was based on their approved complement of men, with First Rank ships carrying a complement of at least 400 men.

Even the largest vessels at this time still carried only a relatively small number of major guns. Each of the Royal Ships carried between 40 and 51 truck-mounted guns at this date (excluding 4 anti-personal ‘port-pieces’ or antiquated wrought-iron antipersonnel weapons that were mounted on the partial decks). In 1624 each mounted some 20 guns on the lowest deck, comprising 6 demi-cannon, 2 obsolescent ‘cannon-petro’ (perriers, throwing stone projectiles instead of cast cannonballs), and 12 culverins; on the second tier they carried between 12 and 18 demi-culverins, with between 8 and 13 sakers on the upper deck.

THE SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS

Just as the Prince Royal had been the prestige vessel of James I’s reign, in 1634 Charles I sought to enhance his standing by commissioning the largest warship yet built. In January 1635 he instructed Phineas Pett, the builder of the Prince Royal, to travel to the north of England to procure suitable timber to build a new Great Ship at Woolwich. Having the materials secured, and the frames cut and shipped in colliers from Newcastle and Sunderland, in May the King then asked Pett to undertake the construction, but Phineas handed over the leading role to his son Peter, who had been born just six weeks prior to the launch of the Prince Royal.

Between them, father and son designed a monster vessel which far overshadowed anything that had been built previously, capable of carrying 90 heavy brass guns on three continuous flush decks – 20 cannon-of-seven and 8 demi-cannon on her lower deck, 30 culverins on her second tier (middle deck), and 28 demi-culverins on the third tier (upper deck), with another 4 demi-culverins on the partial decks above. Even this failed to satisfy Charles, who demanded – a year after her launch – that his new flagship should bear more than a hundred guns to reinforce his claims to sovereignty over the neighbouring seas (her chosen name precisely demonstrated his purpose), so the Petts added a dozen extra demi-culverins on the quarterdeck and forecastle to satisfy him. The keel was laid on 21 December 1635.

‘Ships Royal’ (subsequently ‘First Rates’) 1587–1590 – construction history, burthen tonnage and dimensions (in feet and inches)

In appearance, the ship still retained some characteristics of the Tudor galleon. While dispensing with the obsolete fourth (or bonaventure mizzen) mast, she still had an additional level aft – a half-deck, intermediate between her upper deck and quarterdeck. Moreover, she retained, as completed, the long low beak structure forward, typical of the galleon.

The Sovereign of the Seas was undoubtedly the first English ship designed to carry three full tiers of guns, and the Prince Royal was certainly a three-decker in the structural sense (even if she carried relatively few guns on her upper deck), but neither was the world’s first. There is evidence of earlier three-deckers built abroad: Sir Walter Ralegh, for example, described a Spanish three-decker called the Philip which he engaged in action off the Azores in 1591 as carrying ‘three tier of ordnance on a side, and eleven pieces in everie tier’.

Immediately following the launch of the Sovereign of the Seas in October 1637, Peter Pett commenced a rebuilding of the Prince Royal While it was not structurally possible to enlarge her much, she was able to carry a greater number of guns (initially 64, a figure which grew further over the years, as more guns were fitted on her upper deck and above). In this form, and renamed Resolution, she served as the flagship of the Commonwealth naval forces in several of the battles of the First Anglo-Dutch War of 1652–54, the larger Sovereign (the full version of the name was dropped in 1650) being under repair at Chatham at the start of that conflict. In 1651 the Sovereign had been considered to be crank (top-heavy), and so her superstructure was cut down to improve her stability, with the topgallant poop being entirely removed. The shipwrights’ recommendation (modernising the archaic spelling and punctuation) reads:

First, as to the Sovereign, we conceive that – to make her more serviceable than now she is – the gratings and the upper deck in the midships be taken down, that the side [be] lowered to the upper edge of the ports in the midships; the upper stateroom to be taken away, the forecastle to be lowered to six feet high, and the works abaft be taken down proportionately to the mast and answerable to the sheer of the work fore and aft; the half deck [to be] shortened as shall be convenient, as also the head to be made shorter and so fitted for the sea; and the galleries to be altered as may be comely and most convenient for service.

Recommissioned in time for the outbreak of war against the Dutch, the Sovereign took a severe pounding at the Battle of the Kentish Knock, and grounded towards the end of the action. Limping back to harbour, she spent the rest of that war out of service.

THE ENGLISH COMMONWEALTH
AND THE FIRST ANGLO-DUTCH WAR

Following the Civil Wars of the 1640s and the execution of Charles I, the new Commonwealth government decided on New Year’s Day 1650 to rename those ships indelibly associated with the former monarchy. Accordingly the Prince Royal became the Resolution, while the Sovereign of the Seas had its name shortened to just Sovereign.

In September 1651 the Commonwealth Parliament passed the notorious Navigation Act, banning all foreign merchantmen from carrying cargoes to English ports except from their own country. Conflict with the United Provinces of the Netherlands, whose traders had been transporting 90 per cent of English sea trade, was inevitable. The Dutch refused to accept English attempts to search Dutch ships for goods carried in contravention of the Act, and the dispute broke out into naval warfare during the summer of 1652. The first encounter, even prior to the formal declaration of war, took place in May off Dover, when an English squadron under General-at-Sea Nehemiah Bourne and one under his colleague Robert Blake clashed with the much larger Dutch fleet under Luitenant-Admiraal Maarten Tromp. Bourne’s squadron included the 60-gun Triumph, built as a Second Rate in 1623 but recently re-classed as a First Rate as a temporary replacement for the discarded Merkonour.

All three First Rates took part in the actions of the following two years, but the Sovereign saw only limited service. Recommissioned in 1652 under Captain Nicholas Reed, she took part in the Battle of the Kentish Knock on 28 September but saw no further action. The Resolution served as the flagship of Robert Blake in that battle; in the subsequent action off the Gabbard shoal in June 1653, now under Captain John Bourne, she served as the flagship of the joint commanders, the Generals-at-Sea George Monck and Richard Deane, although Deane was killed early in the battle. Eight weeks later, the opposing fleets clashed again off Scheveningen, with Resolution still being Monck’s flagship.

‘Ships Royal’ (subsequently ‘First Rates’) 1610–1650 – construction history

‘Ships Royal’ (subsequently ‘First Rates’) 1610–1650 – dimensions in feet and inches

Expansion of the naval forces of the new republic, which had begun soon after the Commonwealth was established, continued throughout the war. Initial construction concentrated on Third and Fourth Rate ‘frigates’, but as the war continued deliberations began on building new capital ships. On 3 July 1654 the Council of State issued an order to build four Second Rank ships. The Admiralty Committee on 3 August ordered the Master Shipwrights at Chatham, Woolwich and Deptford to prepare draughts for 60-gun ships and assemble timber to build them. All were to be three-deckers, although on the upper deck only a partial battery was included, with guns mounted aft under the quarterdeck, and others forward of the unarmed waist. The first three of these Second Rates were the London, Naseby and Dunbar, while the fourth ship (the Richard) was not ordered until 1656, again from Woolwich. The original design for all four ships was to have a keel length of 120ft, a breadth of 38ft 4in and a depth in hold of 15ft 9in, producing a tonnage of 938 bm (Builder’s Measure).

Besides being larger, the Naseby was also more heavily armed than the three Second Rates. While the latter carried a mixed battery of cannon-of-seven (42-pounders) and demi-cannon (32-pounders) on their lower decks, the First Rate had a complete set of fortified cannon-of-seven cast specially for her while under construction. As much an emblem of power for the Protectorate as earlier (and later) First Rates were for the Crown, her figurehead consisted of the politically symbolic representation of Cromwell bestriding six nations. Initially commissioned in 1656 under Captain Roger Cuttance, she served as the joint flagship of Generals-at-Sea Robert Blake and Edward Montagu (then of Montagu alone from October 1656). She spent most of 1658 out of commission, and seemingly during this time her hull was girdled (extra layers of timber were added to her sides to improve stability), increasing her breadth to 42ft 6in, and thus her tonnage to 1258 bm.

THIS Willem Van de Velde (the Elder) drawing shows the former Naseby as she appeared following the Restoration in May 1660. As flagship of the fleet which carried the restored monarch from Holland to England, the ship was renamed Royal Charles in his honour. Captain Roger Cuttance had commanded the ship ever since she was first commissioned in 1656, and initially maintained his responsibility under the new regime, but in 1661 was transferred to command the Royal James. The Royal Charles had an active role during the Second Anglo-Dutch War until December 1666 when, like most of the Navy’s principal ships, she was laid up as finance for the war was exhausted. Lying in the Medway below Chatham, she suffered the ignominious fate of being captured during the Dutch raid in June 1667 and sailed back to Holland as a trophy.
[SCHEEPVAART MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM]

A later view of the Royal Sovereign. She had been active throughout the Third Anglo-Dutch War, by which time her armament had been raised from 92 to 100 guns.
Recommissioned in January 1672 under the flag of Sir Joseph Jordan, she fought in the Battle of Solebay in May. She was present at both battles of Schooneveld a year later, and served as Prince Rupert’s flagship in the second battle, a role she repeated off the Texel in August 1673. By 1675 (to when this drawing is dated) she had been laid up at Chatham, where she remained until funds were available to enable her to be rebuilt from 1680 onwards.
[NMM PT2302]

The Royal Sovereign had been rebuilt in 1659–60, and the Royal Prince was similarly rebuilt from 1661 to 1663. Each of them, as well as the Royal Charles, now carried 26 cannon-of-seven on the lower deck, but in May 1664 it was decided to provide them with demi-cannon in the chase positions fore and aft on this deck, mainly because the Ordnance Board lacked enough cannon-of-seven for each First Rate to mount a complete battery of these.

Under the Establishment of Guns prepared in 1666, the Royal Sovereign and Royal Prince were each rated to carry 92 guns – 22 cannon-of-seven, 6 demi-cannon, 28 culverins and 36 demi-culverins. At that date the Royal Sovereign actually carried 102 guns – 13 cannon-of-seven, 13 demi-cannon, 36 culverins and 18 demi-culverins, plus 22 sakers; and in July her Establishment was raised from 92 to 102 guns to reflect this. The actual guns aboard the Royal Prince at this date are uncertain, but Dutch records following her capture seem to indicate that she probably carried 16 cannon-of-seven, 16 demi-cannon, 30 culverins and 16 demi-culverins, plus 14 sakers. Both ships following their recent rebuildings had thirteen pairs of lower deck gunports, the same number on the middle deck, and twelve pair on the upper deck, to give a total of 76 ports on these three decks – closely matching the number of guns actually carried if sakers are discounted (which were presumably mounted on the quarterdeck and forecastle).

A VIEW from the port quarter of the Royal James (built in 1658 as the Second Rate Richard) as drawn by the elder Van de Velde shows the ship after conversion at the start of the 1660s. The upper deck was now fitted with additional gunports in the waist so that she carried 82 guns like the Royal Charles, albeit that she was a much smaller ship (7ft shorter and 18in narrower). Consequently the weight of guns she could safely carry was less than the other First Rates, and in 1664 the twelve cannon-of-seven (42-pounder guns) on her lower deck were removed and replaced by ten demi-cannon (32-pounder guns) to give her a uniform battery of twenty-four such guns on this deck, plus two culverins which were presumably carried in a chase position. Despite her less than first class armament, she was Prince Rupert’s flagship during the Four Days’ Battle, where Dutch gunfire brought down her main topmast and mizzen mast, plus the attached yards, badly crippling her.
[BOYMANS VAN BEUNINGEN MUSEUM, ROTTERDAM]

The slightly smaller Royal Charles had 82 guns established in 1666 (up from 78 a year before) – 20 cannon-of-seven, 6 demi-cannon, 26 culverins and 30 demi-culverins, while the Royal James was allowed the same number, but 22 demi-cannon, 26 culverins and 34 demi-culverins; the actual ordnance carried by these two ships was exactly as per their establishments, except that the Royal James had one more pair of demi-cannon and one fewer pair of demi-culverin than her establishment. Both ships had one fewer pair of middle deck gunports, to give a total of 74 ports on the three continuous decks, and the lack of sakers mentioned in respect of them indicates that the quarterdeck and forecastle were virtually unarmed, notwithstanding the ports provided there.

First Rates under the Commonwealth and early Restoration – dimensions in feet and inches

First Rates under the Commonwealth and early Restoration – construction history

THIS model depicts the Naseby as originally built, still with the English Commonwealth’s arms on the stern. The ship was at first intended as a Second Rate (one of four ordered Cromwell’s government), but redesigned as a First Rate while on the stocks at Woolwich by Commissioner Peter Pett (son of Phineas). Although enlarged from her planned dimensions, she was significantly smaller than the Sovereign, and only carried 80 guns when first completed. Oliver Cromwell’s pretentious figurehead (showing the Lord Protector in regal pose) enraged the Restoration leadership that followed in 1660, and in December 1663 this was removed and replaced by a more acceptable effigy of Neptune carrying a trident, and seated in a seashell drawn by two seahorses.

Three of England’s four First Rates were lost during the hard-fought Second Anglo-Dutch Wan During the lengthy battle in the southern North Sea during the first week of June 1666, known as the Four Days. Battle, the English fleet conducted a fighting retreat towards the Thames. The Royal Prince, flagship of Admiral Sir George Ayscue, grounded on the Galloper Sand (as did other ships including the Royal Charles and Second Rate Royal Katherine, but these all managed to free themselves). Stuck fast, the Royal Prince was surrounded by Dutch warships and compelled to surrender. While undamaged (hardly a shot was fired), the Dutch also found that she could not be moved, and consequently set fire to her.

A year later, with the majority of the English fleet laid up in the Thames and Medway, the Dutch staged a large raid. On 12 June the Dutch seized the undefended Royal Charles, lying off Gillingham, and triumphantly carried her off to Holland. There she was put on display at Hellvoetsluis for several years before being broken up in 1673. On the following day, 13 June, they encountered the Royal James, which had been partly scuttled in shallow water just below Chatham to prevent her being taken. She was set ablaze and burnt to the waterline. Several other large warships – including several Second Rates – were also burnt in this humiliating blow to English pride. Of the largest ships only the Royal Sovereign, away in Portsmouth, escaped the debacle. Along with three Second Rates and eight smaller line of battle ships (all Third or Fourth Rate prizes), this raid produced the greatest single loss of capital ships the navy was to face during the entire age of sail. After the Dutch wars no other First Rate would ever again be lost to enemy action.