HMS Sapphire (1651)

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Career (England)

Name:	HMS Sapphire
Builder:	Peter Pett I, Ratcliffe
Launched:	1651
Fate:	Wrecked, 1670
General characteristics ^[1]
Class and type:	Phoenix-class frigate
Tons burthen:	442 long tons (449.1 t)
Length:	100 ft (30.5 m) (keel)
Beam:	28 ft 10 in (8.8 m)
Depth of hold:	11 ft 9 in (3.6 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	140 originally, by 1666 had 160 (wartime).
Armament:	originally 38, later 36 guns in war (30 only in peacetime)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Sapphire.

HMS Sapphire was a 38-gun Fourth rate frigate of the English Royal Navy, originally built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England by Peter Pett I at Ratcliffe, and launched in 1651.^[1]

Unlike many of her half-sisters, the Sapphire seems to have never had additional guns added to her after completion; indeed by 1666 she carried just 36 in wartime (and 30 in peacetime), with 12 culverins and 10 demi-culverins on the lower deck, and 14 sakers on the upper deck. The Sapphire was wrecked on 31 March 1670 when she was deliberately run ashore on Sicily to escape from what her captain, John Pearce, thought were four Algerian corsairs. They weren't, and Pearce and his Lieutenant, Andrew Logan, were shot for cowardice at Deptford on 26 August 1670.