HMS ''St David'' was a 54-gun

fourth rate In 1603 all English warships with a complement of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers, a six-tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided ...

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactics in the Age of Sail, naval tactic known as the line of battl ...

of the

English Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the ...

, launched in 1667 at

Lydney Lydney is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is on the west bank of the River Severn in the Forest of Dean District, and is 16 miles (25 km) southwest of Gloucester. The town has been Bypass ( ...

. She foundered in

Portsmouth Harbour Portsmouth Harbour is a / biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Portsmouth and Gosport in Hampshire. It is a Ramsar site and a Special Protection Area. It is a large natural harbour in Hampshire, England. Geographically it ...

in 1689 ADM 106/390/13 and was raised in 1691 under the supervision of Edmund Dummer,

Surveyor of the Navy The Surveyor of the Navy, originally known as Surveyor and Rigger of the Navy, held overall responsibility for the design of British warships from 1745. He was a principal commissioner and member of the Navy Board from the inauguration of tha ...

. The ship was later hulked and finally sold in 1713. This is the ship about whose voyage John Baltharpe wrote “The Straights Voyage, or, St. Davids Poem”. while this may not be the most literary effort, it is very engaging and, being written by one of the crew, as opposed to an officer is rollicking, earthy, and illustrative of the lives of working seamen, John Baltharpe had been enslaved by the north africans previously, and so was well up for a scrap with the Algerians, which was the voyage the poem illustrates

Notes

References

* The straights voyage, or, St. Davids poem https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A30597.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext Ships of the line of the Royal Navy 1660s ships Ships built in Lydney {{UK-line-ship-stub