HMS St David (1667)

‘St David’, 54-gun fourth-rate, built 1667, sunk 1689. Only the foremost gun deck port is shown. (Willem van de Velde, 1675)
History
England
Name	HMS St David
Builder	Furzer, Lydney
Launched	1667
Fate	Wrecked, 11th Nov. 1689
General characteristics
Class and type	54-gun fourth rate ship of the line
Tons burthen	685 tons
Length	107 ft (33 m) (keel)
Beam	34 ft 9 in (10.59 m)
Depth of hold	14 ft 8 in (4.47 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Armament	54 guns of various weights of shot

HMS St David was a 54-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, launched in 1667 at Lydney.^[1]

She foundered in Portsmouth Harbour in 1689 ^[2] and was raised in 1691 under the supervision of Edmund Dummer, Surveyor of the Navy.

The ship was later hulked and finally sold in 1713.

This is the ship about whose voyage John Baltharpe wrote “The Straights Voyage, or, St. Davids Poem”. while this may not be the most literary effort, it is very engaging and, being written by one of the crew, as opposed to an officer is rollicking, earthy, and illustrative of the lives of working seamen, John Baltharpe had been enslaved by the north africans previously, and so was well up for a scrap with the Algerians, which was the voyage the poem illustrates