HMS Saint Patrick

Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

History
England
Name| HMS Saint Patrick
Ordered| 15 April 1665 (contract)
Builder| Francis Bayley, Bristol
Launched| 9 May 1666
Commissioned| 10 June 1666
Captured| 5 February 1667, by Dutch Navy
Dutch Republic
Name| Zwanenburg
Acquired| 5 February 1667
General characteristics [1]
Class and type| 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen| 621
Length| 102 ft (31 m) (keel)
Beam| 33 ft 10 in (10.31 m)
Depth of hold| 14 ft 6 in (4.42 m)
Sail plan| Full-rigged ship
Armament| nominally 50 guns; actually carried 48 guns comprising 20 × 24-pounders, 2 culverins, 22 demi-culverins and 4 sakers

HMS Saint Patrick was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy. In 1665, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Navy Committee of Parliament adopted a supplement to their 1664 Programme which provided for one third rate (Warspite) and three fourth rates. The King's chronic financial worries led to the cancellation of the contracts for two of the fourth rates, but the remaining vessel, awarded to Bristol shipbuilder Francis Bayley, was completed in barely a year at the contract price of £6 per ton, measuring slightly larger than her contract dimensions of 100 ft keel length and 32 ft 6 in breadth. Launched in May 1666 at Bristol, the ship proved an outstanding success as a fast, weatherly sailing warship.[1]

Commissioned a month after her launch under Captain Robert Saunders, the Saint Patrick joined Sir Robert Robinson's squadron on Christmas Day 1666. However, less than nine months after being launched, she was captured off the North Foreland on 5 February 1667 by the Dutch 34-gun Delft and 28-gun Shakerlo, after a battle which left Saunders and 8 of his crew dead and another 16 wounded. She was commissioned by the Dutch States Navy later in 1667 as the Zwanenburg.[1]

## Notes

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1. ^ a b c Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p161.

## References

[edit]

* Lavery, Brian (1983) The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.
* Winfield, Rif (2009) British Warships in the Age of Sail: 1603 - 1714. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-040-6.

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