HMS Coventry (1695)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Coventry.

History
Royal Navy EnsignEngland
NameHMS Coventry
Ordered16 November 1693
BuilderFisher Harding, Deptford Dockyard
Launched20 April 1695
Captured24 July 1704
General characteristics [1]
Class and type50-gun fourth rate ship of the line
Tons burthen667 81⁄94 bm [2]
Length106 ft (32.3 m) (keel)
Beam34 ft 5 in (10.5 m)
Depth of hold13 ft 6 in (4.1 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament
  • 50 guns:
  • Lower gundeck 20 x 12 pdr guns
  • Upper gundeck 22 x demi-culverins (9 pdr guns)
  • Quarterdeck 6 x minions (4 pdr guns)
  • Forecastle 2 x minions (4 pdr guns)

HMS Coventry was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, one of five such ships authorised on 16 November 1693 (three to be built in different Royal Dockyards and two to be built by commercial contract). The Coventry was built by Master Shipwright Fisher Harding at Deptford Dockyard and launched there on 20 April 1695.[1]

The French 54-gun ships Auguste and Jason, at that date operating as privateers, captured the Coventry (then commanded by Captain Henry Lawrence, and escorting a convoy outbound for Newfoundland) on 24 July 1704 about 200 miles southwest of the Isles of Scilly.[1][3][4]

On 6 May 1709, Portland recaptured Coventry at Bastimentos (near Puerto Bello), but she was not taken back into British service and was instead broken up.[1][5]

  1. ^ a b c d Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail: 1603-1714, p.135.
  2. ^ The tonnage is officially recorded at 670 bm, but the calculation from her dimensions show this was a clerical approximation, and the precise figure should be 667 81⁄94 bm.
  3. ^ David J. Hepper, British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail 1650-1859 (Jean Boudriot Publications, Rotherfield, East Sussex, 1994) ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
  4. ^ Roche (2005), p.57.
  5. ^ Roche (2005), p.134.