CHAPTER
2
The Pepysian Age
THIS oil portrait by the younger Willem Van de Velde shows the Saint Andrew at sea in a moderate breeze. The younger painter routinely produced his oil paintings from drawings sketched at sea by his father. This highly successful vessel was relatively beamy in relation to her length, and hence more stable, never requiring the girdling needed for some other three-deckers. This ship was a replacement for the elderly 66-gun Second Rate of the same name – one of Burrell’s Great Ships built in the early 1620s, which had been wrecked in a gale in September 1666. She was the last major English warship to be completed with square wreaths around her upper deck gunports.
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THE triple main wale of this model is unusual, although one of the drawings in Deane’s ‘Doctrine of Naval Architecture’ (1670) shows it. However, it probably does not represent a Deane design, and apart from some of the decorative details, in most important respects it resembles the Saint Andrew. It clearly shows that ship’s gunport disposition of 14 lower, 13 middle and 14 upper deck gunports on each side. Furthermore, as in the model, the foremost pair of ports on the lower deck was so far forwards that guns were probably never employed here. Like her, near-sister London from the same shipyard, she was established to carry 26 cannon-of-seven, 28 culverins and 26 demi-culverins, with 12 sakers on her quarterdeck and forecastle, plus 4 small 3-pounders on the poop. By 1685 she seemingly had 2 fewer culverins and 2 additional demi-culvenns, more accurately equating to her gunports. Also like the London, she bore a lion figurehead.
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Within a few days of the loss of the Royal Prince, a petition was launched to raise money ‘to build a ship in her place, and by her name yet bigger’. The replacement Prince would be launched at Chatham just 4½ years later. On 30 June the king and his council resolved to commence a programme often ‘Great Ships’, of which ‘none to be under third-rates’. Estimates were prepared on 19 July for two Second Rates and four Third Rates, although few of these would materialise. It is unclear whether the new Prince and any other First Rates were considered part of this programme, but besides the Prince at Chatham three new three-deckers were laid down at Deptford (two) and at Woolwich, all three being established on completion as 96-gun ships.
The Thames-built trio were similar in their proportions and in effect may be considered to constitute a single class. All three were begun while Christopher Pett served as Master Shipwright for both Deptford and Woolwich and certainly he was responsible for their design, but the Deptford ships seem to have been built by his assistant (and successor) Jonas Shish.
The Woolwich ship was designed by Christopher Pett, who began her construction but died on 22 March 1668, following which she was completed by Edward Byland, his assistant at Woolwich. The elderly Second Rate Saint Andrew having been wrecked in 1666, her name was allotted to the new ship at Woolwich. She was very similar to the Deptford-built London, but with an additional pair of upper deck gunports, and one fewer pair on the middle deck, so again providing for 92 guns on the broadsides. While her 1677 Establishment was the same as for the Charles and London, the 1685 Establishment, which probably better reflected her actual disposition of guns, provided for 26 guns on the lower deck (cannon-of-seven), the same number on the middle deck (culverins) and 28 guns on the upper deck (demi-culverins). The total of 96 was completed by 16 sakers (2 of them cutts) on the quarterdeck and forecastle; with only 5 pairs of ports on the quarterdeck, the remaining sakers were presumably positioned to fire over the head rails or astern. The actual survey of guns (1696) showed her still carrying 96, the only change being that 4 more demi-culverins had replaced 4 of the sakers.
After the close of the Second Dutch War, two further First Rates were ordered to be built by Anthony Deane at Portsmouth Dockyard. Deane had previously built the successful Third Rates Rupert and Resolution at Harwich, and since being moved to Portsmouth in 1668 had already built the experimental Fifth Rate Nonsuch there. The design of these ships can be studied in Deane’s influential ‘Doctrine of Naval Architecture’, written in 1670. In fact, not all his three-deckers were as impressive as his smaller warships, although they were fast and weatherly ships. Deane introduced novel features in his designs, such as fitting iron pillars and knees in the Royal James instead of using scarce and expensive compass timber.
This first ship, the Royal James, was certainly a tremendous success. It had originally been intended to rebuild the old ship of the same name, burnt in the Medway raid, but this proved impractical. Sadly she was to prove equally a victim of enemy torches, being destroyed by the Dutch at the Battle of Solebay just fourteen months after her launch and four months after being commissioned on 18 January 1672. Her first and only commander was Captain Richard Haddock, but she carried the flag of Admiral Edward Montagu, the Earl of Sandwich. At Solebay in May 1672, the flagship of the Blue Squadron was attacked by Dutch fireships, one of which – the Vrede – successfully set her alight and like her predecessor she burned to the waterline and sank. Haddock was among the few survivors, but Sandwich was lost with his ship.
THE London was theoretically rebuilt from the remains of the 80-gun Loyal London of 1666, burnt during the Dutch raid of 1667 on the Medway. The elderly Jonas Shish undertook to rebuild her, but although the wreck was raised and taken to Deptford, in practice he probably broke up the remains and incorporated any usable material into a new ship of 96 guns. This portrait was drawn in 1675 by the elder Van de Velde.
[BOYMANS VAN BEUNINGEN MUSEUM, ROTTERDAM]
DRAWN by the younger Van de Velde about 1675, the Charles was built at Deptford by Jonas Shish, the Assistant Master Shipwright there, but the design was probably the work of Christopher Pett, who as Master Shipwright oversaw both Thames-side dockyards’ output. Her official name was Charles the Second, but the abbreviated form was generally used until 1687, when she was renamed Saint George. Her design seems to have been slightly enlarged from the shortlived Loyal London, a Second Rate built by contract at Deptford in 1666 but lost a year later. Although the ship’s head is lost in the cropping of this drawing, the beakhead bulkhead clearly shows the curious – and unique – half-round galleries, like theatre boxes, that project from it.
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ANTHONY Deane’s second three-decker from Portsmouth, the Royal Charles, was probably begun from the same draught as the preceding Royal James, but as completed this ship was slightly longer and narrower than her sister. She served as Prince Rupert’s flagship at the first Battle of Schooneveld in May 1673, but the prince shifted his flag to the Royal Sovereign for the second battle a week later, having found the Royal Charles to be unstable in action. Nevertheless, the Royal Charles also fought in that second battle, as well as in the subsequent Battle of Texel in August (when her captain, John Hayward, was killed). She was then taken in hand at Portsmouth and ‘girdled’ or widened by some 16 inches, resulting in a considerable improvement to her stability. Later in the decade she served at Vice-Admiral Sir John Kempthorne’s flagship in the Channel during 1678, and was then reduced to guard duty at Portsmouth until being rebuilt in the 1690s.
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The First Rates Programme of the Second Dutch War – construction history
The First Rates Programme of the Second Dutch War – dimensions in feet and inches
THE Royal Prince of 1670 (or simply Prince as she was commonly known) ‘before the wind’ is the subject of Jan Karel Donatus van Beecq’s portrayal. The ship flies the royal standard at the main truck and the presence of two of the king’s yachts suggests a royal visit to the fleet, possibly in June 1672 when the Prince was the Duke of York’s flagship. Built by Phineas Pett (grandson of the earlier Phineas), this ship was a straight replacement for the Prince Royal lost in 1666. One of the ship’s characteristic features, a small gallery covering only the centre four lights at upper deck level, can be seen projecting from the centre of the stern.
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A month after the launch of the Royal James, Deane received instructions to built a second ship of this rate. The Royal Charles, also named after the First Rate lost during the recent war, was similar and indeed may have been built to the same draught. The gunport configuration was apparently the same, with 14 pairs of gunports on the lower deck, the same on the middle deck, and 13 pairs on the upper deck (the establishment of guns provided 28 demi-culverins on this deck, indicating that the fourteenth pair were in the chase position, firing over the headrails), with 6 pairs on the quarterdeck and 2 on the poop. She was as fast and weatherly as her consort, but – being slightly narrower than the Royal James – she proved less stable and tended to roll badly.
The Royal Charles was commissioned on 2 February 1673. The indomitable Haddock took command, and she became the flagship of Prince Rupert, Admiral of the Red. She took part in both Battles of Schooneveld, after which Haddock relinquished command to Captain John Hayward. During the first of these battles, in late May, the ship’s instability became an obvious problem; she rolled so deeply that her lower gunports could not be opened. Prince Rupert transferred his flag to the Royal Sovereign before the second battle in early June, and the Royal Charles lost her flagship status. She fought as a ‘private ship’ (without a flag officer) in the Battle of Texel that August, where Hayward was killed and replaced by Sir John Holmes. Paid off with the arrival of peace in February 1674, she was taken into dock and girdled, with layers of extra planking added to her sides. This increased her breadth from 44ft 8in to 46ft, and her tonnage correspondingly rose from 1443 to 1530 tons.
AN engraving after a painting by Isaac Sailmaker of the Royal Prince of 1670, shown in the multiple-view tradition of marine portraiture – in this case a starboard broadside and port quarter perspective. The similarity between this and other oil portraits of the ship in terms of sail set and the flags flown suggests a degree of plagiarism; or at best different renditions of the same event.
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She emerged from this refit with the rolling problem apparently cured, as no further complaints are recorded. She briefly recommissioned in the summer of 1678 under Captain John Rogers, as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir John Kempthorne in the Channel. The rest of her career was spent as a guardship at Portsmouth until she was partly rebuilt in the early 1690s.
As with Deane’s previous First Rate, the launch of the Royal Charles in March 1673 was followed a few weeks later by a further instruction to Deane to build yet another, this time as a replacement for the Royal James lost at Solebay. She took the same name, but on this occasion Deane was able to take into account the lessons learnt from the war. To avoid the instability of the Royal Charles, the new Royal James was 4ft shorter in the keel, so that her proportions were closer to those of the First Rates of the Second Dutch War era. Partly because of this reduction in length, and partly to provide a little more space between the guns, one pair of gunports was omitted on each continuous deck, with the reduction of six heavy guns being offset by three pairs higher up, one on the quarterdeck abaft the quarter gallery and two on the forecastle. Furthermore, while she was formally established with the same ordnance as Deane’s other three-deckers, in 1685 she was certainly equipped with demi-cannon instead of cannon-of-seven on the lower deck, a significant reduction in firepower.
THE tragically short-lived Royal James features in this posthumous (1678) oil painting by Willem Van de Velde the Elder, accompanied by a royal yacht and sundry other vessels. Commissioned in January 1672 under Captain Richard Haddock, the ship was destroyed by the Amsterdam Admiralty fireship Vrede which grappled her during the battle of Solebay a bare four months later. Dutch gunfire had already cost her 250 of her 800 crew dead or wounded, and many of her upper deck guns were out of action, so the ship’s resistance was greatly weakened. The conflagration took a couple of hours to sink the ship, but most of the crew were lost, including the admiral, Edward Montagu, the Earl of Sandwich.
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A superbly detailed contemporary model of the Royal James of 1671. Anthony Deane’s first three-decker, she introduced a number of innovations in her construction, including the first use of iron knees and pillars. During her brief life she proved a magnificent success, being both stable and weatherly, and after her premature loss at the Battle of Solebay in 1672, Deane was quickly commissioned to build a replacement.[KRIEGSTEIN COLLECTION, USA]
The First Rates in the
Anglo-Dutch Wars
The three Anglo-Dutch wars of the seventeenth century were almost entirely naval in character, fought for control of maritime trade rather than for land conquests. In a relentless series of fleet engagements, conducted on a huge scale and with unmitigated ferocity, the English First Rates were more actively employed than at any other time in the 250-year history of the type. From early 1653, the English battlefleet was organised into three squadrons, named Red (centre), Blue (van) and White (rear) – although the relative status of Blue and White was later reversed – and it became the established tradition that each squadron was commanded from a First Rate flagship. This set the minimum number required in the fleet at three, although there was usually at least one ‘spare’.
Since the Dutch had nothing comparable – they built no large three-deckers until much later in the century – the First Rate should have been an English trump card; yet the only First Rates ever lost to enemy action occurred during these wars, and all in less than glorious circumstances. On the positive side, First Rates provided an unparalleled concentration of firepower and, almost invariably acting as flagships, a centre of strength and a rallying point in action; but as such they also drew disproportionate attention from the enemy First Rates could be battle-winners, but any misfortune that struck them in action could sway the decision the other way.
1 ON the third day of the Four Days’ Battle in 1666 the English were forced by superior numbers to stage a fighting retreat towards the Thames, and in the confusion the Prince and other ships went aground on the Galloper Sand in the estuary. The other ships pulled free, but the Prince was soon surrounded by the chasing Dutch and the unfortunate Admiral Sir George Ayscue surrendered – the only admiral in the Royal Navy’s history to do so. Admiral Tromp had hoped to take the First Rate back to the Texel as a prize, but when she was refloated, the effort disabled her rudder, and so the Dutch were forced to set her alight to prevent her recapture. She burned until nearly midnight, and then blew up as her magazines exploded. Rendered by Willem Van de Velde the Elder in 1672, this grisaille depicts the Royal Prince, surrounded by Dutch two-deckers, at the moment the English ensign was struck.
[KARLSRUHE MUSEUM]
2 BY the end of the second Anglo-Dutch war numerous disasters, including the outbreak of plague and the Great Fire of London in 1666, had reduced the king’s government almost to bankruptcy. With peace negotiation under way, they gambled on the cessation of hostilities and laid up the majority of the fleet at its usual winter moorings in the Medway. However, in a brilliant coup de main, a Dutch force of 62 ships under de Ruyter’s command staged a successful attack on the disarmed and unmanned English ships lying at anchor. A number of the Great Ships were scuttled or burned, including the Royal James, but the greatest prize was the fleet flagship, the Royal Charles, which was carried off to the Netherlands as a prize. Naturally a favourite subject for Dutch marine artists, this is Ludolf Backhuizen’s oil rendering of the captured Royal Charles under Dutch colours. The prize passed the rest of her life as a trophy and tourist attraction at Hellvoetsluis until she was sold (for 5000 guilders) in April 1673 to be broken up. The royal coat of arms from the taffrail is preserved in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
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3 SCARCELY a year old, and only commissioned four months beforehand, Royal James was the flagship of Edward Montagu, Earl of Sandwich at the Battle of Solebay on 28 May 1672. Fiercely engaged in the centre of the fighting, she fought her way out of one encounter with a Dutch ship that had become entangled with her, and exchanged salvoes with other enemy warships, but she was badly damaged and barely manoeuvrable by the time she was grappled by a Dutch fireship. With nearly a third of the crew killed or incapacitated, and her captain, Richard Haddock, wounded, effective countermeasures could not be organised, and the ship burnt to the waterline and sank. The conflagration lasted for a few hours and some of the crew were taken off, including Haddock, but most of those aboard including Sandwich were killed.
[SCHEEPVAART MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM]
THIS pencil-and-wash portrait by the elder Willem Van de Velde of the new Britannia was made around 1685, following her construction by Sir Phineas Pett at Chatham as part of the 1667 ‘Thirty Ships’ programme. The artist probably drew this during a visit to Chatham for the launch of the rebuilt Royal Sovereign. It shows the Stuart royal standard flying at the main mast head and the Admiralty flag at the fore mast. The Master Shipwright made the Britannia as broad as possible (16 inches wider than was specified) but the oversized guns with which she was supplied still made her unstable and she required girdling before her first commissioning in 1691, adding 16 inches of fir to her breadth, and incidentally removing two pairs of gunports from her middle deck. After modification she served very successfully as Admiral Edward Russell’s flagship, fighting with distinction at Barfleur in 1692 and leading the Anglo-Dutch main fleet into the Mediterranean in 1694.
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Deane’s First Rates of the Third Dutch War – construction history
Note that the Royal Charles was renamed on 27.1.1693 and the Royal James (ii) on 3.3.1691 upon their rebuilding. The Royal James (ii) was a replacement for the first ship of 1671.
Deane’s First Rates of the Third Dutch War – dimensions in feet and inches
THIS fine contemporary model of the Britannia of 1682 once belonged to Charles Sergison, Pepys’s successor as Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board, although it is now in the collection of the US Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland. The model can be identified with more certainty than most: quite apart from its well-documented provenance, it carries a carved wooden ribbon on the break of the poop with the ship’s name on it. Britannia herself was designed and laid down under Sir Phineas Pett, the Master Shipwright at Chatham, but was actually completed by Robert Lee, who took over from Pett in July 1681. She was laid up following her launch a year later, and had deteriorated by the time that she was examined by a Special Commission. Her refit cost £2315 for the work on the hull, and another £2138 for rigging and stores. Unusually, this ship had an entry port on each side of the middle deck. She also carried a particularly elaborate figurehead depicting the King riding on horseback over a winged dragon.
[US NAVAL ACADEMY MUSEUM, ANNAPOLIS]
THIS drawing by the younger Van de Velde shows the Royal James of 1675, built as a replacement for the ship of the same name lost in action in 1672. Learning from the instability found in the Royal Charles, Deane made his third 100-gun ship slightly fuller, and four feet shorter. Moreover, the Admiralty had ruled in October 1673 that ‘all ships to be built hereafter are to have one fewer port on each side’ on each gundeck. As a result Deane’s design was amended to have one fewer pair of gunports on each of the three continuous decks in order to allow about a foot more space for working each gun. Instead, she carried three more pairs of guns on her forecastle and quarterdeck. Nevertheless, she was probably over-gunned as a consequence (as Frank Fox has observed) and under the 1685 Gun Establishment she was to exchange her initial cannon-of-seven for smaller demi-cannon, although it is uncertain whether this change was put into practice before she was rebuilt in the 1690s, soon after serving at the Battle of Barfleur in 1692; by this date she had already been renamed Victory.
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The Navy Board Model
This is a particularly fine example of the kind of ship model that was developed in England in the second half of the seventeenth century. As far as is known, they were officially commissioned works and so are generally referred to as Admiralty Navy Board or Dockyard models. The vast majority are built at ¹/₄₈th scale, which equates to the ¼in to the foot scale used for the draughts from which the full size ships themselves were constructed. This type of model rapidly became a recognised convention with stylised features, notably decorative apertures left in the deck planking to allow glimpses into the interiors and hull planking omitted altogether below the main wales, exposing the frames in a pattern that recalled the lines of a draught. They were not always rigged, but usually replicated the decorative work.
At one time it was thought they were used as part of the design process, but these models must have taken as long, if not longer, to build than the real ship; there are also many surviving examples of far simpler ‘block’ models that demonstrate little more than hull shape, so while the latter were undoubtedly used for design purposes, Admiralty models were more likely just impressive art objects, intended for display. Given the time, care and skill expended on their construction, as well as their official background, it is almost inconceivable that they are not intended to represent actual ships – yet it is often surprisingly difficult to identify them for certain (British warships did not carry their names on the stern until the late eighteenth century and models are no different). Real ships were often modified during construction, and in the course of what might be long careers; similarly, models can show signs of later alteration (for example, to put a new monarch’s arms on the stern), not to mention subjection to ill-advised ‘restoration’ like any other antique. Only the most meticulous research can suggest identities, and even then it is often on the balance of probabilities.
In the case of this model, the consensus of expert opinion is that it represents the short-lived Royal James of 1671. Its provenance can be traced back to the ship’s designer, Sir Anthony Deane, who was persuaded by Samuel Pepys to present it to Christ’s Hospital school. It is among the very best of the genre and currently resides in the Kriegstein Collection, which contains some of the finest Navy Board models in private hands.
1 THE figureheads of First Rates were individual creations of complex design and subtle imagery, although equestrian figures like this one were common. The rider wears classical armour, but a contemporary full-bottomed wig, exactly like the oil painting of James II by Henri Gascard at the National Maritime Museum.
2 THE profile of a Restoration era First Rate was marked by a graceful sheer sweeping up from a long, overhanging bow to a tall stern. The profusion of gilded carved work might be dismissed as the craftsman’s natural desire to produce a highly decorative objet d’art were it not for the many paintings and drawings that confirm the literal truth of such extravagance. A feature of this model is the acanthus leaf frieze painted along the topsides.
3 A close-up of the poop demonstrating one of the most noticeable features of the Navy Board model: areas of deck left unplanked to allow glimpses of the interior, which were often surprisingly detailed despite the difficulty of gaining a clear view (this characteristic has only been revealed with the advent of modern endoscope technology). An unusual feature of this model is the presence of narrow gangways between the poop deck and the side, allowing the poop to rise above the height of the gunwale to allow more headroom in the officers’ cabins below it.
4 THE larger warships of the Caroline era tended to have a royal coat of arms on the taffrail. When this model was acquired by the present owners this feature was missing, but by a remarkable coincidence a boxwood carving of the right period and perfect size was later acquired at auction and this is now installed on the model.
5 THE quarterdeck and poop, the domain of the senior officers, was heavily decorated on the bulkheads that led to their cabins. Note the double doorway to the coach, which gave access to a staircase descending to the middle gundeck. In stark contrast to this relative luxury, the kennel-like structures at the estreme stern were ‘cabins’ for the ship’s trumpeters.
6 THE decorative work was most concentrated at the stern where the senior and flag officers were accommodated. Despite its grandeur, the principal function of the quarter gallery was to house lavatory facilities for the officers. The rope ladder gave access to the ship’s boats which were usually towed when at sea.
7 AN impressive quarter view of the model showing the unplanked lower hull. There is some debate among experts about whether the framing was ever intended to replicate full-size practice (it certainly does not represent the later modes of construction), but the alternating pattern of equally sized solid and void is a powerful visual aid when trying to appreciate the hull form. At this period both the stern and quarter galleries were enclosed, the open galleries of earlier in the century having disappeared only to be reintroduced – under the influence of French ships – towards the end of Charles II’s reign.
A rough sketch of the Royal Sovereign following her rebuilding between 1680 and 1685, done by one of the Van de Velde family (probably the Elder). Pett’s successor at Chatham, Robert Lee, used this opportunity to bring her up to the same standard as the new-built Britannia. He increased the keel length by 4 feet and widened her.
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The rapid growth in the size of both the Dutch and French navies (the war between them continued notwithstanding the withdrawal of England from hostilities in 1674), put the Royal Navy in danger of being overtaken by both its rivals and relegated to the status of a lesser maritime power. Samuel Pepys, the navy’s leading administrator, initiated a programme to enlarge the fleet, at first requesting from Parliament a programme of forty ships in April 1675, including two First Rates together with seven Second Rates, twenty-seven Third Rates and four Fourth Rates. This was cut back and later modified, so that the final programme approved on 5 March 1677 included a single new First Rate among the ‘Thirty Ships’ of this Programme. However, Pepys also secured permission to rebuild the Royal Sovereign at the same time, and used this rebuilding to bring her up to the same specification as the single authorised new First Rate – in effect, the Royal Sovereign became a sister-ship to the 1677 Programme vessel, which was named Britannia.
The design of the new First Rate was entrusted to Sir Phineas Pett at Chatham; as Master Shipwright there, he also supervised the work on both ships until the end of 1680, when the post was taken over by Robert Lee. Pett was concerned that the initially specified breadth of 46ft would be too restrictive and would lead to instability – several of the previous three-deckers had required girdling (widening by adding extra layers of planking to the sides of a ship) when they were found to be unstable. The new Britannia was widened by some 16 inches from her specification, and the Royal Sovereign a clear 24 inches. In the case of the former vessel even this breadth proved insufficient for the weight of the latest bronze cannon-of-seven supplied by the Ordnance Board, which were also carried at an increased height (Pepys had increased the freeboard of the lowest gunports). The end result was that a potentially fine sailing vessel was described as a ‘slug’.
The faults did not really become apparent until the 1690s, as the Britannia was not put into commission for eight years after her launch. Much to the alarm of the Admiralty of the time, which needed every capital ship it could put into service following the outbreak of war against the French, the Britannia was diagnosed as so unstable in her original condition that she had to be taken in hand and girdled – a procedure which meant that she missed participating in the early actions of the war. An extra 16 inches of fir planking was added, but she emerged from this process with vastly improved sailing performance, in time to play a key role in the Battle of Barfleur, where as the flagship of Admiral Sir Edward Russell she fought it out toe-to-toe (more precisely, broadside-to-broadside) against the French 106-gun Soleil Royal. She continued to serve as a flagship and went with the main fleet to the Mediterranean in 1694, but there were no further fleet actions in this war. Following a major refit in 1700–1701, she was only briefly brought back into service in the following war to serve as the flagship of Admiral Sir Clowdisley Shovell in the attack on Barcelona in 1705. By 1714 her overweight guns had strained the hull to a point where no further service was practical, and she was taken to pieces in 1715 to be rebuilt.
The Britannia was originally established with 26 cannon-of-seven (42-pounders), 28 culverins and 28 ‘heavy’ sakers. As her Van de Velde portrait shows, she had fourteen ports on the lower and middle decks, and only thirteen on the upper deck, so it would seem this armament included a pair of long-barrelled culverins and a pair of long-barrelled sakers, which were placed in the chase ports a deck below their standard-length equivalents. The armament was completed by 16 ‘light’ sakers and two 3-pounders, for which there were provided on each side six quarterdeck and three poop deck gunports.
While the rebuilding of Royal Sovereign was not part of the Thirty Ships Programme, her dimensions were governed by the Establishment of 1677. She was lengthened by some 4ft along the keel, and her original equestrian figurehead was replaced by that of a lion. Note that three distinct methods of calculating the keel length (and hence the burthen) were used during this period. That shown is the actual keel length (or ‘touch’ length), which produces a figure comparable with the establishment. The ‘Calculated’ length was usually about 5 ft longer, while the ‘tread’ length, used by certain authorities including Pepys and Laird Clowes, produces an even more inflated tonnage that is useless for comparative purposes.
Like the Britannia, the Royal Sovereign played a key role during King William’s War. As the flagship of the Red (Centre) Squadron under Admiral Lord Torrington, she fought in the Anglo-Dutch fleet against de Tourville’s French fleet off Beachy Head in June 1690, sadly not with any success. At Barfleur two years later, she carried the flag of Vice-Admiral Sir Ralph Delavall, this time achieving a resounding victory over de Tourville’s fleet. She subsequently served as a flagship for Vice-Admiral Matthew Aylmer in 1693–94, but early on 27 January 1696, while moored in the Medway, a fire was started by a lighted candle which rapidly took control and gutted the ship. The watchkeeping seaman who left the burning candle was flogged and imprisoned for life, while the warrant officers who were required to be supervising the ship were found to be all asleep ashore. Parts of the ship’s timbers were salvaged and used in the construction of the replacement Royal Sovereign ordered twenty-one months later.
First Rates of the Thirty Ships Programme* of 1677 – construction history
* while not part of the Thirty Ships Programme, the reconstruction of Royal Sovereign was nearly contemporary with it.
First Rates of the Thirty Ships Programme of 1677 – dimensions in feet and inches
