TRATEGIC RATIONALE FOR 17TH CENTURY SHIPS OF THE LINE
Written By Jim Bloom
P.03
Technically, Sovereign of the Seas (launched in 1637) was not the first English three-decker. The late Elizabethan galleon that began the true fighting ship of the line reached its culmination in England's Prince Royal of 1610, which was very likely the prototype design from which Sovereign would derive. Sovereign, then, marks the transition from the galleon to the ship of the line culminating in the celebrated HMS Victory of 1759. It would be well to take a look at this point at the evolution of the galleon of Drake and Raleigh’s day to appreciate this innovation.
At the beginning of the First Anglo-Dutch War in 1652, the English fleet had two types of ship, the 'Great Ship' and the 'Frigate'. The great ship had evolved in the early years of the century, out of the type of galleon which had fought against the Spanish Armada in 1588. It was given higher upper works, greater gun power, and a relatively low length/breadth ratio. According to the Commission of 1618 which did much to initiate this style of building, they 'should have the length treble the breadth and the breadth near in like proportion answerable to the depth. They were of 650 to 850 tons, of 'middling size', and therefore 'best for sailing, and will also bear a very good sail, and are likewise nimble and yare [quick] for steerage. Such ships were suitable for the old style of turning and boarding tactics, where the ability to turn a ship was as important as any other quality. Initially they were not very heavily gunned for their size
The St George, built in 1622, had 42 guns, weighing a total of 48 tons and firing a broadside of 6041bs, at her first commissioning. By the time of the First Anglo-Dutch War she was carrying 52 guns with a broadside of 710 lbs, and by the 1670s she was planned to have 70 guns, weighing 112 tons and firing 125Olbs. The great ships had two complete flush decks, and initially they had little armament on the upper works
In the first half of the seventeenth century progress in design came not through any real tactical developments but, as Charles’ “commission” for the Sovereign illustrates, because the insecure monarchies of the age needed large ships to reflect their prestige