''Warspite'' (also spelled ''Warspight'') was a

great ship The rating system of the Royal Navy and its predecessors was used by the Royal Navy between the beginning of the 17th century and the middle of the 19th century to categorise sailing warships, initially classing them according to their assi ...

(later classed as a

second rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a second-rate was a ship of the line which by the start of the 18th century mounted 90 to 98 guns on three gun decks; earlier 17th-century second rates had fewer guns ...

) 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 ...

.The 'HMS' prefix was not used until the middle of the eighteenth century, but is sometimes applied as an anachronism. The vessel was built 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 ...

by the master shipwright Edward Stevens and launched about 1 March 1596. She carried a crew of 300 when at sea, of whom 190 were classed as " mariners", manning the guns and fighting the ship; 80 as "

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. While the term ''sailor'' ...

s", working the sails and ancestors of present-day seamen and 30 "gunners", the armament specialists. The origins of its name are unclear, although it is probably from the word '' spight'' – an Elizabethan-era spelling variation of both '' spite'' and '' speight'' – in part embodying contempt for the Navy's enemies, but which was also the common name for the green woodpecker, suggesting the 'Warspight' would poke holes in enemy ships' (wooden) hulls. Following her launching, she was commissioned under Captain Sir

Arthur Gorges Sir Arthur Gorges (c. 1569 – 10 October 1625) was an English sea captain, poet, translator and courtier from Somerset. Origins He was the son of Sir William Gorges (d.1584) of Charlton, in the parish of Wraxall, Somerset, Wraxall in Somerset, ...

and on 21 June she led, as flagship of

Raleigh Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

's expedition, one of the four squadrons to

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

, and in the same year fought in the Battle of Cádiz. In 1597 and three years later ''Warspite'' took part in expeditions which brought the indispensable loot of the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

. She took part in the failed Islands Voyage hoping to intercept the

Spanish treasure fleet The Spanish treasure fleet, or West Indies Fleet (, also called silver fleet or plate fleet; from the meaning "silver"), was a convoy system of sea routes organized by the Spanish Empire from 1566 to 1790, which linked Spain with its Spanish Empi ...

in which Walter Raleigh sailed as Vice Admiral and commanded by Gorges. On its return to England it faced the Spanish Armada of 1597 which failed due to storms and the safe passage of the English fleet. ''Warpsite'', leaking from the same storm, captured two Spanish ships from the Armada off St Ives. The information given by the prisoners was vital on learning the Armada's objectives. Sesimbra

The

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 ...

's next major battle took place during December 1601 in the Irish harbor of Castlehaven where an entire Spanish expedition sent to support the rebellion in Ireland was destroyed in the Battle of Castlehaven. In June 1602 she was off the coast of Spain again and began an attack on Cezimbra Bay near Lisbon (Portugal) which resulted at the

Battle of Sesimbra Bay The Battle of Sesimbra Bay was a naval engagement that took place on 3 June 1602, during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585), Anglo-Spanish War. It was fought off the coast of Portugal (then within the Iberian Union) between an English naval expedition ...

in the capture of a large

carrack A carrack (; ; ) is a three- or four- masted ocean-going sailing ship that was developed in the 14th to 15th centuries in Europe, most notably in Portugal and Spain. Evolving from the single-masted cog, the carrack was first used for Europea ...

loaded with treasure valued at a million

ducat The ducat ( ) coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages to the 19th century. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wide inter ...

s. The next event of ''Warspite''s career was less happy—during 1627 she took part in the

Duke of Buckingham Duke of Buckingham, referring to the market town of Buckingham, England, is an extinct title that has been created several times in the peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. There were creations of double dukedoms of Bucki ...

's ill-fated

Siege of La Rochelle The siege of La Rochelle (, or sometimes ) was a result of a war between the French royal forces of Louis XIII of France and the Huguenots of La Rochelle in 1627–1628. The siege marked the height of Huguenot rebellions, the struggle between ...

to support the

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

s at

La Rochelle La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle'') is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime Departments of France, department. Wi ...

in western France. It ended in disaster and the galleon was reduced to a

hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk ...

. ''Warspite'' was relegated to harbour service in 1635 and was cut down to serve as a

lighter A lighter is a portable device which uses mechanical or electrical means to create a controlled flame, and can be used to ignite a variety of flammable items, such as cigarettes, butane gas, fireworks, candles, or campfires. A lighter typic ...

. She was sold out of the navy in 1649.

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. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Warspite (1596) 16th-century ships Ships of the English navy