- Cinque Ports is also the name for a group of five English port towns, the namesake of this ship.
| History | |
|---|---|
&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:English_Red_Ensign_1620.svg){kind=small} England | |
| Name | Cinque Ports |
| Fate | Sank, 1704 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 130 bm |
| Length | 172 ft (52 m) |
| Beam | 33 ft (10 m) |
| Propulsion | Sail |
| Complement | 63 |
| Armament | 16 guns |
Cinque Ports was an English ship whose sailing master was Alexander Selkirk,[1] generally accepted as a model for the fictional Robinson Crusoe.[2] The ship was part of a 1703 expedition commanded by William Dampier, who captained the accompanying ship, the 26-gun St George with a complement of 120 men.[3]
When the War of the Spanish Succession broke out in 1701, English privateers were recruited to act against French and Spanish interests.[4] Despite a court-martial for cruelty to one of his crew in an earlier voyage,[5] Dampier was granted command of the two-ship expedition which departed England on 30 April 1703 for the port of Kinsale in Ireland.[6]
- ^ Rogers (1712), p. 125.
- ^ Severin (2002), p. 11.
- ^ Funnell (1707), pp. 1–2.
- ^ "Letters of Marque and Reprisal for the Cinque Ports, Declaration of Charles Pickering", The National Archives (11 January 1702).
- ^ "William Dampier, Captain, HMS Roebuck, Royal Navy Court Martial", The National Archives (8 June 1702).
- ^ Funnell (1707), p. 3.