Peter Pomegranate

The Peter Pomegranate as depicted in the Anthony Roll.
Career (England)  England
Name: Peter Pomegranate(from 1536 Peter)
Builder: Portsmouth
Launched: 1510
Commissioned: 1510
Refit: rebuilt and enlarged 1536
Honours and
awards:
Battle of St. Mathieu
Battle of Pinkie (naval bombardment)
Fate: Unknown, last mentioned in 1558
General characteristics
Tons burthen:600
Complement:185 soldiers, 185 sailors, 30 gunners
Armament:36 cannons, 66 swivel guns

The Peter Pomegranate was a warship of the English Tudor navy, build in 1510. Its name most likely was in honour of Saint Peter and the badge of Queen Catharine of Aragon, a pomegranate.[1] It had a tonnage of 450 when first built, but in 1536 it was rebuilt and enlarged to a tonnage of 600; at that date the name was shortened to Peter (Catharine had fallen out of grace; she died in 1536). The ship's fate is not recorded, but it was last mentioned in records in 1558.[2] The Peter Pomegranate was a contemporary of the Mary Rose that sank during the Battle of the Solent in 1545.

Named in full in the roster as the "Peter Pomgarnarde", she joined Edward Clinton's invasion fleet against Scotland in August 1547.[3] According to an inventory of 1547, the rebuilt Peter had 185 sailors, 185 soldiers, and 30 gunners. Her armaments included; 2 brass demi-cannons; 2 brass culverins; 4 brass demi-culverins; 4 brass sakers; an iron culverin; 3 iron sakers; 9 iron port pieces; 37 iron bases; and 11 hagbuts. There were also 259 yew bows, 160 bills; and 160 Moorish pikes.[4]


References

  1. Childs, David, The Warship Mary Rose: The Life and Times of King Henry VIII's Flagship Chatham Publishing, London. 2007. ISBN 978-1-86176-267-2, p. 17; Marsden, Peter (editor), Your Noblest Shippe: Anatomy of a Tudor Warship. The Archaeology of the Mary Rose, Volume 2. The Mary Rose Trust, Portsmouth. 2009. ISBN 978-0-9544029-2-1, pp. 5, 379
  2. Rodger, N. A. M. (2004). The Safeguard of the Sea. London: Penguin Books. pp. 476–477. ISBN 0-14-029724-3.
  3. Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (1898), 12, no. 29.
  4. Starkey, David, ed., Inventory of Henry VIII, vol 1, Society of Antiquaries (1998), nos. 7165, 7252-7273.