The following vessels were added to the Navy during the reign of Charles, including such prizes as were taken into the service and remained in it until useless:—[1079]
| Prize | Built | Rebuilt | Keel in ft. | Beam in ft. | Depth[1080] in ft. | Draught in ft. | Gross tonnage | Guns | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Claude[1081] | 1625 | 300 | |||||||
| St Denis | 1625 | 104 | 32.5 | 11.9 | 528 | 38 | |||
| St Mary[1082] | 1626 | ||||||||
| St Anne[1082] | 1626 | 350 | |||||||
| Espérance[1083] | 1626 | 250 | |||||||
| Henrietta[1084] | 1626 | 52 | 15 | 6.6 | 68 | 6 | |||
| Maria[1084] | 1626 | 52 | 15 | 6.6 | 68 | 6 | |||
| Spy[1085] | 1626 | 20 | |||||||
| 10 Lion’s Whelps[1086] | 1627 | 62 | 25 | 9 | 185 | 14 | |||
| Fortune[1087] | 1627 | 300 | |||||||
| St Esprit[1088] | 1627 | ||||||||
| Vanguard | 1630 | 112 | 36.4 | 13.10 | 750 | 40 | |||
| Charles | 1632 | 105 | 33.7 | 16.3 | 16.8 | 810 | 44 | ||
| Henrietta Maria | 1632 | 106 | 35.9 | 15.8 | 793 | 42 | |||
| James | 1633 | 110 | 37.6 | 16.2 | 17.2 | 875 | 48 | ||
| Unicorn | 1633 | 107 | 36.4 | 15.1 | 16.3 | 823 | 46 | ||
| Leopard | 1634 | 95 | 33 | 12.4 | 12.9 | 515 | 34 | ||
| Swallow | 1634 | 96 | 32.2 | 11.7 | 12.3 | 478 | 34 | ||
| Swan[1089] | 1636 | ||||||||
| Nicodemus[1089] | 1636 | 63 | 19 | 9.6 | 105 | 6 | |||
| Roebuck | 1636 | 57 | 18.1 | 6.8 | 90 | 10 | |||
| Greyhound | 1636 | 60 | 20.3 | 7.8 | 126 | 12 | |||
| Expedition | 1637 | 90 | 26 | 9.8 | 301 | 30 | |||
| Providence | 1637 | 90 | 26 | 9.9 | 304 | 30 | |||
| Sovereign | 1637 | 127 | 46.6 | 19.4 | 1522 | 100 | |||
| Lion | 1640 | 108 | 35.4 | 15.6 | 17.6 | 717 | 52 | ||
| Prince | 1641 | 115 | 43 | 18 | 1187 | 64 | |||
| Crescent[1090] | |||||||||
| Lily[1090] | |||||||||
| Satisfaction | 1646 | 220 | 26 | ||||||
| Adventure | 1646 | 94 | 27 | 9.11 | 14 | 385 | 38 | ||
| Nonsuch | 1646 | 98 | 28.4 | 14.2 | 389 | 34 | |||
| Assurance | 1646 | 89 | 26.1 | 11 | 13 | 341 | 32 | ||
| Constant Warwick[1091] | 1646 | 90 | 28 | 12 | 12.8 | 379 | 30 | ||
| Phœnix | 1647 | 96 | 28.6 | 14.3 | 414 | 38 | |||
| Dragon | 1647 | 96 | 30 | 12 | 15 | 414 | 38 | ||
| Tiger | 1647 | 99 | 29.4 | 12 | 14.8 | 447 | 38 | ||
| Elizabeth | 1647 | 101.6 | 29.8 | 14.10 | 471 | 38 | |||
| Old Warwick | 1646 | 22 | |||||||
| Falcon[1092] | |||||||||
| Hart[1092] | 10 | ||||||||
| Dove[1092] | |||||||||
| Truelove[1092] | 6 | ||||||||
| Concord[1092] | |||||||||
| Dolphin[1092] | |||||||||
| Fellowship[1092] | 28 | ||||||||
| Globe[1092] | 24 | ||||||||
| Hector[1092] | 20 |
The James, Assurance, Elizabeth, Tiger, Nonsuch, Swallow, and Henrietta Maria, were built at Deptford, the first four by Peter Pett, who also built the Constant Warwick at Ratcliff. The Sovereign, Prince, Leopard, Greyhound, Unicorn, Roebuck, Adventure, Phœnix, and Charles, at Woolwich; the Henrietta Maria, Vanguard, Lion, and Dragon, at Chatham. Phineas Pett, who built the Sovereign and rebuilt the Prince, was a son, by a second marriage, of the Peter Pett, master shipwright in the reign of Elizabeth; his son, Peter Pett, junior, built the Nonsuch, Adventure and Phœnix. The Peter Pett of Deptford was a grandson of the Elizabethan Pett.
The Ten Whelps.
The first two pinnaces constructed, the Henrietta and the Maria, were, it is expressly stated,[1093] to be ‘carvel built,’ a distinction which implies that hitherto such small vessels had been clinch or ‘clinker built;’ we have seen that large ones were mostly carvel, or flush planked, in the reign of Henry VIII.[1094] We do not hear that they proved satisfactory in either speed or power, and next year the contract for the ten whelps was divided among nine shipwrights, some of them private builders, at £3 5s a ton.[1095] They were to be able to use sweeps, and were square rigged, with three masts, two decks and a round house, as miniature copies of the large ships; like those also they were too heavily sparred and ordnanced. Of heavy guns each was intended to carry four culverins, four demi-culverins, and two brass sakers, but subsequently two demi-cannon were added, and the strain of this armament proved too great for both their sailing and seagoing qualities. Their demi-cannon were mostly stored in hold at sea, instead of being on deck.[1096] They were afterwards said to have been built in haste, ‘of mean, sappy timber, for particular service,’[1097] and to be weakly constructed, costing relatively large sums to maintain in serviceable condition; they were used a good deal for winter service in the four seas, and only one of them lived into the days of the Commonwealth. Two were lost returning from Rochelle; and by 1631 the sixth and seventh whelps had disappeared from the lists, the seventh by the simple process of sending the gunner into the magazine with a naked light while she was in action with a Dunkirker. The fifth was lost in July 1637, and her experience of straining till she took in water through her closed ports, and opened her seams, was probably that undergone by most of those that foundered.[1098] The fourth whelp was handed over ‘for a design to be practised on by a Dutchman’s project,’ and she passes out of the Navy list.[1099] These whelps were the first representatives, in intention, although not in form, of the regular sloop and gunboat class afterwards so largely used for minor police purposes.
During the years of foreign warfare it was found easier to turn suitable prizes into men-of-war than to arrive at the money necessary for new ships, but from 1632 until the commencement of domestic trouble it will be seen that vessels were added in regular succession. It will be observed in the preceding list of ships that a keel length of three times the beam was, roughly, the ratio in favour during the middle of the reign, while on reference to the Elizabethan Navy list, the proportion in the majority is seen to be one of about two and a half times the breadth. Whether the alteration was due to theoretical calculation or to study of the lines of foreign ships we have no means of deciding, but the increase in length is still more pronounced in the vessels launched in 1646 and 1647, their keels being sometimes nearly three and a half times their beam. According to Pepys this last improvement was due to Pett’s observation of a French ship lying in the river, in which case the French designers had already obtained that superiority in the art of shipbuilding which they held until speed became a matter of engine power.
The new Ships.
The cost of the Charles and Henrietta Maria was £10,849, and of launching and taking them from Woolwich to Chatham, £1222; that of the James and Unicorn came to £12,632,[1100] the increased totals as compared with the St George and St Andrew, of the previous reign, being attributed to sounder workmanship and higher prices for labour and materials. A further sum of £4076, was paid on the James and Unicorn for ‘rigging, launching, furnishing, and transporting’ them from Woolwich and Deptford to Chatham, work which included 65 tons of cordage at £35 a ton, 214 cwt. of anchors at £2 per cwt., suits of sails at £225 a suit, waistcloths and top armours of red cloth for both £132,[1101] and trumpeters and pipes at their launch, £15.[1102] The King and Queen were present at the launch of these vessels, and £14, 5s 4d was spent in sweetmeats for them and their attendants. Pennington wrote to the Lords of the Admiralty that the Vanguard and the Henrietta Maria were both good ships, although the latter was ‘extraordinarily housed in aloft;’ privately, to Nicholas, he said that there had been ‘great abuse both in materials and workmanship.’[1103] When he had to try the Unicorn he in that instance gave his unfavourable report directly to the Admiralty. On joining at Tilbury he found her so crank that she could carry no sail. Three shipwrights on board—Ed. Boate, who built her, Pett, and Austin—persuaded him to take in another hundred tons of ballast, and the extra weight brought her so low that the gun-deck ports had to be caulked up, as ‘in a reasonable gale of wind’ she would lay them under water. Pennington was still unwilling to venture out with the ship, ‘but in regard to the poor man’s disgrace that built her,’ he gave her a trial at sea, and decides that she ‘is dangerous and unserviceable,’ cannot work her guns, and will not live in a gale.[1104]
Under these circumstances the authorities naturally desired to be informed by the Trinity House experts and the masters of the Shipwrights’ Company why they had given a certificate approving the Unicorn. They answered that they thought she would be a failure, ‘but rather than disgrace any workman they put their hands, hoping the ship might prove well.’[1105] The defence sounds weakly benevolent, but that they were either too ignorant themselves to judge, or that the ganglionic plexus of fraud uniting most officials made them unwilling to venture on such a dangerous novelty as an honest opinion, is much more likely than that they were actuated by goodwill towards each other, a feeling they always successfully suppressed where hostile criticism could be safely hazarded. ‘The bruits of this disaster have spread far and wide,’ wrote Edisbury, and many opinions were obtained as to the best course to take, the discussion ending in girdling her, a method which increased her stiffness at the expense of her speed. The Unicorn’s ports were intended to be 5 feet above the water line, but they proved to be but 3 feet 7 inches from it. ‘The King’s ships are not built as they should be, nor like merchant ships,’ Pennington complained.[1106]
The Roebuck and Greyhound of 1636 were built from the waste of the Sovereign, then on the stocks, and the Providence and Expedition in 1637 were finished in time to join Rainsborow before Sallee, vessels of lighter draught than those he had with him, but of some force, being required. The other accessions of 1636, the Swan and Nicodemus were both Dunkirk prizes, and added to the Navy as being the fastest vessels afloat. Pennington recommended that the Swan should be used as a model by English builders, and the Nicodemus was said to run away from everything, ‘as a greyhound does from a little dog.’