''Foresight''
[The 'HMS' prefix was not used until the middle of the 18th century, but is sometimes applied retrospectively] was a 28-gun
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 ...
of the
English Tudor navy
The Tudor navy was the navy of the Kingdom of England under the ruling Tudor dynasty (1485–1603). The period involved important and critical changes that led to the establishment of a permanent navy and laid the foundations for the future Roy ...
, built by
Mathew Baker at
Deptford Dockyard
Deptford Dockyard was an important Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and man ...
and launched in 1570. It was a radical innovation over contemporary ships. When
John Hawkins became
Treasurer of the Navy
The Treasurer of the Navy, originally called Treasurer of Marine Causes or Paymaster of the Navy, was a civilian officer of the Royal Navy, one of the principal commissioners of the Navy Board responsible for naval finance from 1524 to 1832. T ...
in 1577, he had sailed all over the world, and his ideas contributed to the production of a new
race-built series of galleons - of which the ''Foresight'' was the first - without the high
fore- and
after-castles prevalent in earlier galleons; these "marvels of marine design" could reputedly "run circles around the clumsier Spanish competition."
As such, the ''Foresight'' was part of the English fleet which destroyed most 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.
She was broken up in 1604.
Notes
Citations
References
* Lavery, Brian (1983) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. .
* Winfield, Rif (2009) ''British Warships in the Age of Sail 1603-1714: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates.'' Seaforth Publishing. .
Ships of the English navy
16th-century ships
Ships built in Deptford
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