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
Royal Navy EnsignEngland
NameHMS St David
BuilderFurzer, Lydney
Launched1667
FateWrecked, 11th Nov. 1689
General characteristics
Class and type54-gun fourth rate ship of the line
Tons burthen685 tons
Length107 ft (33 m) (keel)
Beam34 ft 9 in (10.59 m)
Depth of hold14 ft 8 in (4.47 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament54 guns of various weights of shot
St David in an action of the English Succession

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

  1. ^ Lavery 2003, p. 161.
  2. ^ ADM 106/390/13