HMS Lichfield (1695)

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

Lichfield, plan of the 1730 rebuild
History
Royal Navy EnsignGreat Britain
NameHMS Lichfield
Ordered16 November 1693
BuilderWilliam Stignant, Portsmouth Dockyard
Launched4 February 1695
Out of serviceFebruary 1715
FateBroken up, 1744
General characteristics as built[1]
Class and type50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen686 6⁄94
Length130 ft 3 in (39.7 m) (gundeck) 107 ft 7 in (32.8 m) (keel)
Beam34 ft 7.5 in (10.6 m)
Depth of hold13 ft 6 in (4.1 m)
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament50 guns of various weights of shot
General characteristics after 1730 rebuild[2]
Class and type1719 Establishment 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen755 89⁄94 bm
Length134 ft 2 in (40.9 m) (gundeck) 109 ft 8 in (33.4 m) (keel)
Beam36 ft (11.0 m)
Depth of hold15 ft 2 in (4.6 m)
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament
  • 50 guns:
  • Gundeck: 22 × 18 pdrs
  • Upper gundeck: 22 × 9 pdrs
  • Quarterdeck: 4 × 6 pdrs
  • Forecastle: 2 × 6 pdrs

HMS Lichfield was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the 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 Lichfield was built by Master Shipwright William Stigant at Portsmouth Dockyard and launched on 4 February 1695. She was first commissioned in that year under Captain Lord Archibald Hamilton, for service in Home Waters.[1][note 1][3]

She was paid off in February 1715 at Plymouth, and ordered to be rebuilt on 5 December 1718, but the work did not commence until November 1727 (although the ship was taken to pieces for that purpose on 28 May 1720), and she underwent a rebuild according to the 1719 Establishment by Master Shipwright Peirson Lock at Plymouth Dockyard for a cost of £11,342-3-2d, and she was re-launched on 25 March 1730. The Lichfield continued in service until 1744, when she was first nominally reduced to a 44-gun Fifth Rate (on 1 June), but then ordered to be taken to pieces instead ten days later (with a new ship ordered to be built in her stead at Harwich), which breaking-uo was completed in July.[2]

  1. ^ a b Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail: 1603-1714, p.134.
  2. ^ a b Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail: 1714-1792, p.145.
  3. ^ Rif Winfield, The 50-gun Ship


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