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

HMS Swiftsure captured, by Willem van de Velde the Younger
History
Royal Navy EnsignEngland
NameHMS Swiftsure
BuilderBurrell, Deptford
Launched1621
CapturedBy the Dutch on 1 June 1666
Notes
Dutch Navy EnsignDutch Republic
Acquired1666
RenamedOudshoorn
Notes
General characteristics as built[1]
Class and type42-gun Great ship
Tons burthen876
Length106 ft (32 m) (keel)
Beam35 ft 10 in (10.92 m)
Depth of hold16 ft 9 in (5.11 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament42 guns of various weights of shot
General characteristics after 1654 rebuild[2]
Class and type60-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen898
Length118 ft (36 m) (keel)
Beam37 ft 10 in (11.53 m)
Depth of hold16 ft (4.9 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament60 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]

In May 1660, during the English restoration, she seems to have carried Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester from Scheveningen to Dover.[3]

She was the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir William Berkeley at the Four Days' Battle against the Dutch in 1666.[4] 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][4] 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

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  1. ^ a b Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p158.
  2. ^ a b c Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p160.
  3. ^ Pepys (1893) vol.I p157
  4. ^ a b "Berkeley, Sir William (1639–1666)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2224. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

References

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