Sovereign of the Seas
1637
(Aquarius AQ-1002)
- Class: 1st rate (3m) 102 gun
- Displacement: 1,522 tons
- Dimensions: 232 x 48 x 19 ft.
- Armament: 102 guns of various size
- Complement: 250 sailors plus gunners & soldiers
- Designers: Phineas & Peter Pett
- Built: Woolwich Dockyard, England
- Launched: 16 October 1637
- Notes: The first true three-decker, built for Charles I at the cost of 65,586 pounds sterling. Under Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth she was renamed Sovereign. After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 she was rebuilt and renamed Royal Sovereign.
- Service: Fought in all three Anglo-Dutch wars: at Kentish Knock
(28 Sep 1652), the Four Days' Battle (1-4 Jun 1666), Battle of St.James's Day (25 Jul 1666), Solebay (6 Jun 1672), Schoonveld (7 & 14 Jun 1673), and the Texel (21 Aug 1673). Rebuilt again in 1685, she fought in the War of the League of Ausburg, at Beachy Head (30 Jun 1690) and La Hogue-Barfleur (27 Jan 1692). Burned by accident at Chatham, 27 Jan 1696.
Up