The ''Elizabeth Jonas'' of 1559 was the first large English

galleon Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships developed in Spain and Portugal. They were first used as armed cargo carriers by Europe, Europeans from the 16th to 18th centuries during the Age of Sail, and they were the principal vessels dr ...

, built in

Woolwich Dockyard Woolwich Dockyard (formally H.M. Dockyard, Woolwich, also known as The King's Yard, Woolwich) was an English Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard along the river Thames at Woolwich - originally in north-west Kent, now in southeast London - whe ...

from 1557 and launched in July 1559.

Construction

The vessel's keel was laid in 1557, for a ship of 800 tons burthen to replace

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

's prestige warship, the ''

Henry Grace à Dieu ''Henry Grace à Dieu'' ("Henry, Thanks be to God"), also known as ''Great Harry'', was an English carrack or " great ship" of the King's Fleet in the 16th century, and in her day the largest warship in the world. Contemporary with ''Mary Ros ...

'' (More commonly known as the "Great Harry"), which had been destroyed by fire in 1553.Winfield 201, p. 8 Originally intended to be named ''Edward'' after

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his thi ...

, she was renamed when

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

came to the throne. Launched in 1559, accounts of the time relate that she was named Elizabeth Jonas by Elizabeth herself, "in remembrance of being preserved from Her enemies, no less miraculously than the phrophet Jonas (''Jonah'') was preserved from the belly of a whale". She was a square-rigged galleon of four masts, including two

lateen A lateen (from French ''latine'', meaning "Latin") or latin-rig is a triangular sail set on a long Yard (sailing) , yard mounted at an angle on the mast (sailing) , mast, and running in a fore-and-aft direction. The Settee (sail), settee can be ...

-rigged

mizzenmast The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the median line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sail A sail is a tensile structure, which is made from fabric or oth ...

Naval service

''Elizabeth Jonas'' served effectively under the command of Sir Robert Southwell during the battle of the

Spanish Armada The Spanish Armada (often known as Invincible Armada, or the Enterprise of England, ) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by Alonso de Guzmán, Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aristocrat without previous naval ...

in 1588. In 1597-98 she was rebuilt as a

razee A razee or razée is a sailing ship that has been cut down (''razeed'') to reduce the number of decks. The word is derived from the French ''vaisseau rasé'', meaning a razed (in the sense of shaved down) ship. Seventeenth century During the ...

galleon.

Phineas Pett Phineas Pett (1 November 1570 – August 1647) was a shipwright and First Resident Commissioner of Chatham Dockyard and a member of the Pett dynasty. Phineas left a memoir of his activities which is preserved in the British Library and was pub ...

mentions that Elizabeth planned to attend the 1598 launch at

Woolwich Woolwich () is a town in South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was mainta ...

but did not. On 5 August 1606, held as a day of thanksgiving for the king's deliverance from the

Gowrie Conspiracy The Gowrie conspiracy was a series of events unfolding in Scotland on 5 August 1600. Although the facts of the actual attack and deaths of the Ruthvens are known, the circumstances by which that sequence of events came about remain a mystery. Ruthv ...

at Perth in 1600,

James VI and I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 M ...

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I. She was List of Scottish royal consorts, Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and List of English royal consorts, Queen of Engl ...

, their son

Henry Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainmen ...

, and her brother

Christian IV of Denmark Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and King of Norway, Norway and List of rulers of Schleswig-Holstein, Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years and 330 days is th ...

had dinner aboard the ''Elizabeth Jonas'' at

Upnor Castle Upnor Castle is an Elizabethan artillery fort located on the west bank of the River Medway in Kent. It is in the village of Upnor, opposite and a short distance downriver from the Chatham Dockyard, at one time a key naval facility. The fort was ...

near Rochester, and then were rowed to Chatham. The ''Elizabeth Jonas'' was joined to the ''White Bear'' by a bridge, and a third ship moored in between served as the kitchen. Phineas Pett was involved in preparing the ''Elizabeth Jonas'' and the ''White Bear'' for this entertainment.Samuel Denne, 'Extracts from the Life of Mr Phineas Pette', ''Archaeologia, Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity'', 12 (London, 1809), pp. 229-230. In the early seventeenth century she was listed as one of the Navy's Ships Royal, denoting the largest and most prestigious vessels in the fleet. A 1618 commission of enquiry confirmed the designation, but found that years of inactivity had left her entirely unserviceable. Later that year she was broken up for scrap at

Notes

References

*R C Anderson, ''List of English Men of War 1509 - 1649'' *Rif Winfield, ''British Warships in the Age of Sail 1603-1714: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates''. Seaforth Publishing, 2009. . *

External links

Warship design site
(site appears to be archived) *https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=4068 {{DEFAULTSORT:Elizabeth Jonas (1559) Ships of the English navy 16th-century ships