HMS Swiftsure (1621)

HMS Swiftsure was a 42-gun great ship of the English Royal Navy, built by Andrew Burrell at Deptford and launched in 1621.[1]

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

HMS Swiftsure captured, by Willem van de Velde the Younger
History
England
Name: HMS Swiftsure
Builder: Burrell, Deptford
Launched: 1621
Captured: By the Dutch on 1 June 1666
Notes:
  • Participated in:
  • Four Days Battle
Dutch Republic
Acquired: 1666
Renamed: Oudshoorn
Notes:
General characteristics as built[1]
Class and type: 42-gun Great ship
Tons burthen: 876
Length: 106 ft (32 m) (keel)
Beam: 35 ft 10 in (10.92 m)
Depth of hold: 16 ft 9 in (5.11 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament: 42 guns of various weights of shot
General characteristics after 1654 rebuild[2]
Class and type: 60-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 898
Length: 118 ft (36 m) (keel)
Beam: 37 ft 10 in (11.53 m)
Depth of hold: 16 ft (4.9 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament: 60 guns of various weights of shot

She was rebuilt in 1654 at Woolwich by Christopher Pett as a 60-gun third rate ship of the line.[2] She was the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir William Berkeley at the Four Days' Battle against the Dutch in 1666.[3] Berkeley led the van of the English fleet on the first day of the battle, 1 June, but outsailed his squadron into the midst of the Dutch, and was surrounded. After a fierce battle in which Berkeley was killed, Swiftsure was captured.[2][3] The Dutch renamed her the Oudshoorn (70 cannon) and changed the quartergalleries to hide her identity. She fought in the Battle of Solebay in 1672 under the command of Thomas Tobias.

Notes
  1. Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p158.
  2. Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p160.
  3. "Berkeley, Sir William (1639–1666)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2224.

References


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