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HISTORY
Sovereign of the Seas was a 17th-century warship of the
English Navy. She was ordered as a 90-gun first-rate ship of
the line of the English Royal Navy, but at launch was armed
with 102 bronze guns at the insistence of the king. It was
later renamed Sovereign, and then Royal Sovereign.The ship
was launched on 13 October 1637 and served from 1638 until
1697, when a fire burnt the ship to the waterline at
Chatham.
Full History
Sovereign of the Seas was ordered in August 1634 on the
personal initiative of Charles I of England, who desired a
giant Great Ship to be built. The decision provoked much
opposition from the Brethren of Trinity House, who pointed
out that "There is no port in the Kingdome that can harbour
this shipp. The wild sea must bee her port, her anchors and
cables her safety; if either fayle, the shipp must perish,
the King lose his jewel, four or five hundred man must die,
and perhaps some great and noble peer". But the King
overcame the objections with the help of John Pennington and
from May 1635 she was built by Peter Pett (later a
Commissioner of the Navy), under the guidance of his father
Phineas, the king's master shipwright, and was launched at
Woolwich Dockyard on 13 October 1637. As the second
three-decked first-rate (the first three-decker being the
Prince Royal of 1610), she was the predecessor of Nelson's
Victory, although the Revenge, built in 1577 by Mathew
Baker, was the inspiration for her, providing the innovation
of a single deck devoted entirely to broadside guns.
She was the most extravagantly decorated warship in the
Royal Navy, completely adorned from stern to bow with gilded
carvings against a black background, made by John Christmas
and Mathias Christmas after a design by Anthony van Dyck.
The money spent making her, £65,586 (equal to £10,783,075
today), helped to create the financial crisis for Charles I
that contributed to the English Civil War. Charles had
imposed a special tax, the 'Ship Money', to make possible
such large naval expenditure. The gilding alone cost £6,691
(equal to £1,100,076 today), which in those days was the
price of an average warship. She carried 102 bronze cannon
(King Charles explicitly ordered such a high number) and was
thereby at the time the most powerfully armed ship in the
world. The cannon were made by John Browne.
Sovereign of the Seas had 118 gun ports and only 102 guns.
The shape of the bow meant that the foremost gun ports on
the lower gun deck were blocked by the anchor cable.
Consequently, the fore chase – the guns facing forward –
occupied the next ports. There were two demi-cannon drakes –
one port, one starboard – some 11.5 feet (3.5 m) long,
weighing together five tons (5000 kg). They had a bore of
6.4 to 6.75 inches (16.3 to 17.1 centimetres) and fired a
shot weighing 32 to 36 pounds (15 to 16 kilograms), using
around ten pounds of gunpowder.
In the third ports from the bow, there were two 11-foot (3.4
m) demi-cannon drakes weighing, together, 4.3 tons (4300
kg). Behind them were twenty cannon drakes, nine feet long,
and weighing in all 45.7 tons (45700 kg). In the third port
from the stern were two more 11-foot (3.4 m) demi-cannon
drakes weighing, together, 4.3 tons (4300 kg). The last two
ports on either side were occupied by the stern chase – four
10.5-foot (3.2 m) demi-cannon drakes weighing a total of
11.4 tons (11400 kg).
The middle gun deck had heavy fortified culverins – that is,
guns short for their bore – fore and aft. There were two
11.5-foot (3.5 m) pieces, weighing 4.8 tons (4800 kg), in
the fore chase; four 11.5-foot (3.5 m) pieces, weighing 10.2
tons (10200 kg), in the stern chase. Immediately behind the
fore chase were two demi-culverin drakes, eight to nine feet
(2.4 to 2.7 m) long, weighing some 1.9 tons (1900 kg). Then
came twenty-two 9.5-foot (2.9 m) culverin drakes weighing a
total of 30.4 tons (30400 kg).
On the upper gun deck there were two 10-foot (3.0 m)
fortified demi-culverins in the fore chase and two in the
stern chase, both pairs weighing 2.8 tons (2800 kg). Between
them there were twenty-two demi-culverin drakes, eight to
nine feet (2.4 to 2.7 m) long, weighing over 21 tons (21000
kg) in total.
There were eight eight-to-nine-foot (2.4 to 2.7 m) demi-culverin
drakes weighing 7.7 tons (7700 kg) in the forecastle;
another six weighing 5.7 tons (5700 kg) on the half-deck.
The quarter-deck carried two six-foot demi-culverin drake
cutts – a cutt, again, being a shorter version of a gun –
weighing 16 hundredweight (726 kg). Then there were another
two six-foot culverin cutts, weighing 1.3 tons (1,179 kg),
aft of the forecastle bulkhead. In all, Sovereign of the
Seas carried 155.9 tons (141,430 kg) of guns – and that did
not include the weight of the gun carriages. Altogether they
cost £26,441 13s 6d including £3 per piece to have the Tudor
rose, a crown and the motto: "Carolvs Edgari sceptrvm
aqvarum" – "Charles has established Edgar’s sceptre of the
waters" – engraved on them. The gun carriages, made by
Matthew Banks, Master Carpenter for the Office of Ordinance,
cost another £558 11s 8d.
By 1642, her armament had been reduced to 90 guns. Until
1655, she was also exceptionally large for an English
vessel; no other ships of Charles were larger than Prince
Royal.
Sovereign of the Seas was not so much built because of
tactical considerations, but as a deliberate attempt to
bolster the reputation of the English crown. Her name was,
in itself, a political statement as Charles tried to revive
the perceived ancient right of the English kings to be
recognised as the 'lords of the seas.' English ships
demanded that other ships strike their flags in salute, even
in foreign ports. The Dutch legal thinker Hugo Grotius had
argued for a mare liberum, a sea free to be used by all.
Such a concept was mainly favourable to Dutch trade; in
reaction, John Selden and William Monson published the book
Mare Clausum ("the Closed Sea") in 1635, with special
permission of Charles, which attempted to prove that King
Edgar had already been recognised as Rex Marium, or
"sovereign of the seas" - this book had been previously
repressed by James I. The name of the ship explicitly
referred to this dispute; King Edgar was the central theme
of the transom carvings.
Rear-Admiral Sir William Symonds noted that after the ship's
launch she was "cut down" and made a safe and fast ship. In
the time of the Commonwealth of England all ships named
after royalty were renamed; it was first decided to change
the name of the ship into Commonwealth, but in 1650 it
became a simple Sovereign. In 1651 she was again made more
manoeuvrable by reducing upperworks after which she was
described as "a delicate frigate (I think the whole world
hath not her like)". She served throughout the wars of the
Commonwealth and became the flagship of General at Sea
Robert Blake. She was involved in all of the great English
naval conflicts fought against the United Provinces and
France and was referred to as 'The Golden Devil' (den Gulden
Duvel) by the Dutch.
When, during the First Anglo-Dutch War, on 21 October 1652
the States General of the Netherlands in a secret session
determined the reward money for the crews of fireships that
succeeded in destroying an enemy vessel, Sovereign was
singled out: an extra prize of 3000 guilders was promised
'in case they should ruin the ship named the Sovereign'. The
ship had not seen action during the Civil War, remaining
laid up. After being refitted in 1651, she had her first
fight in the Battle of the Kentish Knock, armed with 106
guns. In this battle she ran aground on the Kentish Knock
itself. Although repeatedly occupied by the Dutch in the
fiercest of engagements Sovereign was retaken every time and
remained in service for nearly sixty years as the best ship
in the English fleet. By 1660 her armament had been changed
to 100 guns. After the English Restoration she was rebuilt
at Chatham in 1660 as a first-rate ship of the line of 100
guns, with flatter gundecks and renamed Royal Sovereign;
most of the carvings had been removed.
She was smaller than Naseby (later renamed Royal Charles),
but she was in regular service during the three Anglo-Dutch
Wars, surviving the Raid on the Medway in 1667 by being at
Portsmouth at the time. She underwent a second rebuild in
1685 at Chatham Dockyard, relaunching as a first rate of 100
guns, before taking part in the outset of the War of the
Grand Alliance against Louis XIV of France. For the first
time she ventured into the Irish Sea, and later participated
in the Battle of Beachy Head (1690) and the Battle of La
Hougue, when she was more than fifty years old. In that
period she was the first ship in history that flew royals
above her topgallant sails and a topgallant sail on the
jigger-mast.
Sovereign became leaky and defective with age during the
reign of William III, and was laid up at Chatham,
ignominiously ending her days, on 27 January 1697, by being
burnt to the water line as a result of having been set on
fire either by accident, negligence or design. Some part of
the popular folklore attributes the fire to an overturned
candle.
In her honour, naval tradition has kept the name of this
ship afloat, and several subsequent ships have been named
HMS Royal Sovereign.
A painting from this ship survives on the ceiling of
Commissioners House Chatham Dockyard, over the grand
staircase. It depicts an assembly of the gods and depicts
Mars being crowned by Neptune, surrounded by the goddesses -
Hope, Peace, Justice and Plenty. The painting is surrounded
by a gilded frieze depicting sea creatures. It is attributed
to James Thornhill - Sargeant Painter. He painted the
ceilings of the Royal Hospital Greenwich and the Dome of
Saint Paul's Cathedral.
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