HMS Looe was a 32-gun fifth rate built at Plymouth Dockyard in 1695/96. Shortly after commissioning she was wrecked in Baltimore Bay, Ireland on 30 April 1697.
She was the first vessel to bear the name Looe in the English and Royal Navy.[1]
Construction and specifications
She was ordered on 1 April 1695 to be built at Plymouth Dockyard under the guidance of Master Shipwright Elias Waffe. She was launched on 5 August 1696. Her dimensions were a gundeck of 110 feet 0 inches (33.53 metres) with a keel of 93 feet 0 inches (28.35 metres) for tonnage calculation with a breadth of 28 feet 0 inches (8.53 metres) and a depth of hold of 11 feet 0 inches (3.35 metres). Her builder’s measure tonnage was calculated as 38480⁄94 tons (burthen).[2]
The gun armament initially was four demi-culverins[3][Note 1] on the lower deck (LD) with two pairs of guns per side. The upper deck (UD) battery would consist of between twenty and twenty-two 6-pounder guns[4][Note 2] with ten or eleven guns per side. The gun battery would be completed by four 4-pounder guns[5][Note 3] on the quarterdeck (QD) with two to three guns per side.[6]
Commissioned service 1697
She was commissioned in 1697 under the command of Captain Richard Paul for service in the English Channel.[2]
Loss
She was wrecked in Baltimore Bay, Ireland on 30 April 1697.[2]
Notes
^A demi-culverin was a gun of 3,400 pounds with a four-inch bore firing a 9.5-pound shot with an eight-pound powder charge
^A 6-pounder was a Dutch gun used to replace the saker
^A minion renamed the 4-pounder was a gun of 1,000 pounds with a 3.5-inch bore firing a 4-pound shot with a 4-pound powder charge.
