HMS Royal Charles (1655)

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Royal Charles off Chatham, captured by the Dutch after the Raid on the Medway, June 1667. Jeronymus van Diest (II).
Career (England) Royal Navy Ensign
Name: Naseby
Builder: Peter Pett II, Woolwich
Launched: 1655
Renamed: HMS Royal Charles, 1660
Honours and
awards:

Participated in:
Captured: June 1667, by the Dutch
Fate: Sold for scrap, 1673 (by Dutch navy)
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: 80-gun first rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1,258 long tons (1,278.2 t)
Length: 131 ft (39.9 m) (keel)
Beam: 42 ft 6 in (13.0 m)
Depth of hold: 18 ft (5.5 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament: 80 guns of various weights of shot
For other ships of the same name, see HMS Royal Charles.

Naseby was an 80-gun First Rate three-decker ship of the line of the English Navy, built by Peter Pett and launched at Woolwich dockyard in 1655, originally built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England,[1] and named in honour of Oliver Cromwell's decisive 1645 victory over the Royalist forces during the English Civil Wars. She was ordered in 1654 as one of a programme of four Second Rates, intended to carry 60 guns each. However, she was altered during construction to mount a complete battery of guns along the upper deck (compared with the partial battery on this deck of her intended sisters, on which there were no gunports in the waist along this deck), and so was reclassed as a First Rate.

Engraving of the Royal Charles from 1872 (Note this is not the ship of 1655 built as the Naseby, but the later vessel.)
Engraving of the Royal Charles from 1872
(Note this is not the ship of 1655 built as the Naseby, but the later vessel.)

With the Restoration of the monarchy in June 1660 she was renamed HMS Royal Charles, and served as the ship that brought King Charles II back to England in 1660, captained by Sir Edward Montagu, and also carrying Samuel Pepys. Under her new name, she thus joined the Royal Navy which formally came into being in 1660.

At 1,258 tons, Naseby was larger than Sovereign of the Seas, the first three-deck ship of the line, built by Phineas Pett, Peter's father. Unlike Sovereign of the Seas, Naseby was to enjoy only twelve years in service.

As Royal Charles she took part in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1665 she fought in the Battle of Lowestoft under the command of the Lord High Admiral, James Stuart, Duke of York, her captain being Sir William Penn. During that battle she probably destroyed the Dutch flagship Eendracht. In 1666 she participated in two further actions, the Four Days Battle and the defeat of Admiral Michiel de Ruyter in the St. James's Day Battle off the North Foreland.

The painting Dutch attack on the Medway, June 1667 by Pieter Cornelisz van Soest, painted c. 1667 shows the captured HMS Royal Charles, right of centre.
The painting Dutch attack on the Medway, June 1667 by Pieter Cornelisz van Soest, painted c. 1667 shows the captured HMS Royal Charles, right of centre.

In 1667, flagging English national esteem was further depressed by the raid on the Medway in which a Dutch fleet invaded the Thames and Medway rivers and captured Royal Charles,[1] removing her with great skill to Hellevoetsluis in the United Provinces. The Dutch did not take her into naval service because it was considered that she drew too much water for general use on the Dutch coast. She was auctioned for scrap in 1673.

Her metal stern piece, showing the English coat of arms with a lion and unicorn (see lion and unicorn) along with the white ensign, is now on display in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p160.

[edit] References

  • Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650–1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.
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