![]() 'The true portrait of His Majesty's royal ship the Sovereign of the Seas', a contemporaneous engraving by J. Payne
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History | |
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Name | Sovereign of the Seas |
Builder | Peter Pett, Woolwich Dockyard |
Launched | 13 October 1637 |
Renamed |
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Fate | Burnt, 1697 |
Notes | |
General characteristics as built[1] | |
Class and type | 90-gun first-rate ship of the line |
Tons burthen | 1522 |
Length | 127 ft (39 m) (keel) |
Beam | 46 ft 6 in (14.17 m) |
Depth of hold | 19 ft 4 in (5.89 m) |
Propulsion | Sails |
Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
Armament |
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General characteristics after 1660 rebuild[2] | |
Class and type | 100-gun first-rate ship of the line |
Tons burthen | 1605 |
Length | 127 ft (39 m) (keel) |
Beam | 47 ft 6 in (14.48 m) |
Depth of hold | 19 ft 2 in (5.84 m) |
Propulsion | Sails |
Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
Armament | 100 guns of various weights of shot |
General characteristics after 1685 rebuild[3] | |
Class and type | 100-gun first-rate ship of the line |
Tons burthen | 1683 tons |
Length | 167 ft 9 in (51.13 m) (gundeck) |
Beam | 48 ft 4 in (14.73 m) |
Depth of hold | 19 ft 4 in (5.89 m) |
Propulsion | Sails |
Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
Armament | 100 guns of various weights of shot |
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,[1][4] but at launch was armed with 102 bronze guns at the insistence of the king.[4] She was later renamed Sovereign under the republican Commonwealth, and then HMS Royal Sovereign at the Restoration of Charles II.
The elaborately gilded stern ordered by Charles I of England meant enemy ships knew her as the "Golden Devil".[5] She was launched on 13 October 1637, and served from 1638 until 1697, when a fire burnt the ship to the waterline at Chatham.