 Model of HMS Edinburgh of 1721 in the Thomson Collection of Ship Models on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name: | HMS Warspite |
| Builder: | Johnson, Blackwall Yard |
| Launched: | 1666 |
| Renamed: | HMS Edinburgh, 1721 |
| Honours and awards: | Second Battle of Cape Finisterre, 1747 |
| Fate: | Broken up, 1771 |
| General characteristics as built [1] | |
| Class and type: | 70-gun third-rate ship of the line |
| Tons burthen: | 885 bm |
| Length: | 117 ft (36 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 38 ft 9 in (11.81 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 15 ft 4 in (4.67 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Armament: | 70 guns of various weights of shot |
| General characteristics after 1702 rebuild [2] | |
| Class and type: | 66-gun third-rate ship of the line |
| Tons burthen: | 952 bm |
| Length: | 147 ft 7 in (44.98 m) (gundeck) |
| Beam: | 38 ft 6.5 in (11.748 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 15 ft 8 in (4.78 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Armament: | 66 guns of various weights of shot |
| General characteristics after 1721 rebuild [3] | |
| Class and type: | 1719 Establishment 70-gun third-rate ship of the line |
| Tons burthen: | 1119 bm |
| Length: | 151 ft (46 m) (gundeck) |
| Beam: | 41 ft 6 in (12.65 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 17 ft 4 in (5.28 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Armament: |
|
| General characteristics after 1744 rebuild [4] | |
| Class and type: | 1741 proposals 64-gun third-rate ship of the line |
| Tons burthen: | 1285 bm |
| Length: | 154 ft (47 m) (gundeck) |
| Beam: | 44 ft (13 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 18 ft 11 in (5.77 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Armament: |
|
HMS Warspite was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1666 at Blackwall Yard. [5] This second Warspite was one of the five ships designed to carry more provisions and lower deck guns higher above the water than French and Dutch equivalents. In 1665 the Second Anglo-Dutch War had begun and on 25 July 1666 Warspite was one of 23 new English warships helping to beat a Dutch fleet off North Foreland, Kent. She won again distinction on Christmas Day 1666 as senior officer's ship out of five sent to protect an important convoy of naval stores from the Baltic. Warspite next took part in the first action of the Third Anglo-Dutch War on 28 May 1672 off Southwold Bay, Suffolk. This desperate 14-hour battle, generally known as Solebay, was a drawn fight; but Warspite successfully fended off a pair of Dutch fire ships exactly as she had done off North Foreland. By 1685, she was mounting only 68 guns. [1]
In the rating system of the British Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks. Years of experience proved that the third rate ships embodied the best compromise between sailing ability, firepower, and cost. So, while first-rates and second-rates were both larger and more powerful, the third-rate ships were in a real sense the optimal configuration.
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two columns of opposing warships maneuvering to fire with the cannons along their broadsides. In conflicts where opposing ships were both able to fire from their broadsides, the side with more cannons—and therefore more firepower—typically had an advantage. Since these engagements were almost invariably won by the heaviest ships carrying the most powerful guns, the natural progression was to build sailing vessels that were the largest and most powerful of their time.
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against the Kingdom of France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is known as the Senior Service.
On 15 September 1689 Warspite was recommissioned shortly after the outbreak of the War of the English Succession. She took part in a battle lost against a larger French fleet off Beachy Head, Sussex, on 30 June 1690. And landed men in Ireland to help at the Siege of Cork. In 1702 Warspite was rebuilt at Rotherhithe on the Thames and emerged as a 66-gun ship of 952 tons. [2] In July 1704 she was present at Sir George Rooke's capture of Gibraltar, and suffered 60 casualties in the Battle of Malaga (24 August) which defeated the French attempt to recover the fortress. She continued to serve in the Mediterranean until 1709, when she joined the Channel Fleet. In August 1712, Warspite was paid off at Woolwich. On 30 June 1721 she was rebuilt for a second time at Chatham, relaunching as a 70-gun ship to the 1719 Establishment and renamed HMS Edinburgh. [3] On 14 May 1741 orders were issued for Edinburgh to be taken to pieces for her third and final rebuild, this time at Chatham Dockyard according to the 1741 proposals of the 1719 Establishment as a 64-gun ship. She was relaunched on 31 May 1744. [4]
The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between Louis XIV of France and a European coalition of the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch Republic, Spain, England and Savoy. It was fought in Europe and the surrounding seas, in North America and in India. It is sometimes considered the first global war. The conflict encompassed the Williamite war in Ireland and Jacobite risings in Scotland, where William III and James II struggled for control of England and Ireland, and a campaign in colonial North America between French and English settlers and their respective Indigenous allies, today called King William's War by Americans.
Beachy Head is a chalk headland in East Sussex, England. It is situated close to Eastbourne, immediately east of the Seven Sisters.
Sussex, from the Old English Sūþsēaxe, is a historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English Channel, and divided for many purposes into the ceremonial counties of West Sussex and East Sussex. Brighton and Hove, though part of East Sussex, was made a unitary authority in 1997, and as such, is administered independently of the rest of East Sussex. Brighton and Hove was granted City status in 2000. Until then, Chichester was Sussex's only city.
In 1771 Edinburgh was broken up. [4]
