Adventure Galley

History
Royal Navy EnsignEngland
NameAdventure Galley
BuilderWilliam Castle, Deptford?
Cost8,000 pounds sterling
Launched4 December 1695
FateSunk, April 1698
General characteristics
Class and typeoared frigate
Tons burthen287
Length124 ft (38 m) (keel)
Beam28 ft (8.5 m)
Draught9 ft (2.7 m)
PropulsionSails, one bank of oars
Sail planShip rig
Speed
  • 14 knots (16 mph; 26 km/h) under full sail
  • 3 knots (3.5 mph; 5.6 km/h) under oar, without wind
Complement160 men
Armament34 light cannon

Adventure Galley, also known as Adventure, was an English merchant ship captained by Scottish sea captain William Kidd. She was a type of hybrid ship that combined square rigged sails with oars to give her manoeuvrability in both windy and calm conditions. The vessel was launched at the end of 1695 and was acquired by Kidd the following year to serve in his privateering venture. Between April 1696 and April 1698, she travelled thousands of miles across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in search of pirates but failed to find any until nearly the end of her travels. Instead, Kidd himself turned pirate in desperation at not having obtained any prizes. Adventure Galley succeeded in capturing two vessels off India and brought them back to Madagascar, but by the spring of 1698 the ship's hull had become so rotten and leaky that she was no longer seaworthy. She was stripped of anything movable and sunk off the north-eastern coast of Madagascar. Her remains have not yet been located.