HMS Southsea Castle was a 32-gun fifth rate built under contract by John Knowler of Redbridge (Southampton) in 1695/96.
She was the first vessel to bear the name Southsea Castle in the English and Royal Navy.[1]
Construction and specifications
She was ordered on 3 May 1695 to be built under contract by John Knowler of Redbridge (Southampton). She was launched on 1 August 1696. Her dimensions were a gundeck of 106 feet 6 inches (32.46 metres) with a keel of 88 feet 8 inches (27.03 metres) for tonnage calculation with a breadth of 28 feet 1.5 inches (8.57 metres) and a depth of hold of 10 feet 8.5 inches (3.26 metres). Her builder's measure tonnage was calculated as 3736⁄94 tons (burthen).[2]
The gun armament initially was four demi-culverins[3][Note 1] on the lower deck (LD) with two pair 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 1696-1697
She was commissioned in 1696 under the command of Captain Samuel Whitaker. In 1697 she was under Commander Thomas Legge to sail with a Virginia bound convoy.[2]
Loss
She was wrecked on the Dove Sands off Hoylake (Wirral) on 15 September 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.
