HMS Basilisk (1695)

History
England
NameHMS Basilisk
Ordered9 January 1695
BuilderWilliam Redding, Wapping
Launched4 May 1695
Commissioned1695
Out of service21 January 1729
FateBroken up, Deptford Dockyard, 1729
General characteristics
Class and type6-gun Serpent-class bomb vessel
Tons burthen163 6394 (bm)
Length
  • 72 ft 2 in (22.0 m) (overall)
  • 57 ft 4 in (17.5 m) (keel)
Beam23 ft 2 in (7.1 m)
Depth of hold10 ft 2 in (3.1 m)
PropulsionSail
Sail planKetch-rigged
Complement30
Armament
  • 4 × 2-pdrs
  • 2 × 1212 in. mortars

HMS Basilisk was a Serpent-class bomb vessel of the Royal Navy, one of ten such vessels commissioned in 1695 to support land assaults on continental ports. Initially commissioned as part of Admiral John Berkeley's fleet during the Nine Years' War, she also saw service as an exploratory vessel along the St Lawrence River, and later as part of the victorious British forces at the Battle of Cape Passaro.[1]

At 163 tonnes burthen she was the largest vessel in her class and also the last survivor of it; all nine of her sister ships had been lost or broken up by the time she was decommissioned and broken up at Deptford Dockyard in 1729.[2]

  1. ^ Winfield 2007, p. 338
  2. ^ McLaughlan 2014, p. 117