English ships fight the Spanish Armada, 1588
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History | |
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England | |
Name: | Elizabeth Jonas |
Builder: | Peter Pett, Woolwich Dockyard |
Laid down: | 1557 |
Launched: | 3 July 1559 |
Out of service: |
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Fate: | Rebuilt 1597-98. Condemned and sold, 1618 |
General characteristics as built 1557-59 | |
Tons burthen: | 740 bm |
Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
Armament: | 42 guns |
General characteristics as rebuilt from 1598 | |
Class and type: | 55-gun Royal Ship |
Tons burthen: | 684 bm |
Length: | 100 ft (30 m) (keel) |
Beam: | 38 ft (12 m) |
Depth of hold: | 18 ft (5.5 m) |
Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
Complement: | 500 (340 sailors, 40 gunners, 120 soldiers) |
Armament: |
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The Elizabeth Jonas of 1559 was the first large English galleon, built in Woolwich Dockyard from 1557 and launched in July 1559.
The vessel's keel was laid in 1557, for a ship of 800 tons burthen to replace Henry VIII's prestige warship, the Henry Grace à Dieu, which had been destroyed by fire in 1553. Originally intended to be named Edward after ordered Edward VI of England, she was renamed when Elizabeth I came to the throne. She was a square-rigged galleon of four masts, including two lateen-rigged mizzenmasts.
Elizabeth Jonas served effectively under the command of Sir Robert Southwell during the battle of the Spanish Armada in 1588. In 1597-98 she was rebuilt as a razee galleon.
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 Woolwich Dockyard.