Body Plan of 74-gun Terrible The 74-gun Terrible was lately launched in Toulon dockyard. Built after a design by François Coulomb the Younger, aged 48, this ship seems to be the prototype of a new sort of mighty two-deckers. Coulomb streamlined and enlarged the hull of former 74s so as to reach superb qualities of seakeeping and of swiftness as well as to accommodate 28 guns at the main deck, 30 guns at the upper deck, 10 guns at the quarterdeck and 6 more at the forecast

92-gun three-decker Prins Willem Last year, Cornelis Evertsen, 42 years old, Lieutnant-Admiral of Zealand has replaced Tromp as Lieutnant-Admiral General. He is known as both gallant and skilful, and also considered as politically neutral, in contrast with Tromp, an active Orangist. Present time requires consensus behind Prince Willem for a war against France is considered as short-term unavoidable by every observer. ¤ Moreover, Tromp is certainly known as competent but a

Cornelis Marteenszoon Tromp The Staten-Generaal, that is the assembly of senate and house of representatives, has decided to build thirty-six ships to replace the core of the fleet built in the 1660s. This decision results, first, from the French threat, on land as at sea, and, second, from the decay of the ships hastily built in the 1660s, many having already been broken up. ¤ As everybody knows, Duquesne defeated Ruyter in the Mediterranean sea in 1676, and D'Estrées defe

Anne-Hilarion de Costentin, comte de Tourville Many ship constructions have already been ordered since the opening of this war between...

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, 61 years old, Secretary-of-State for the Navy since 1669, has established three schools of naval architecture for...

SS Sirius Two steamships (or SS in short), Sirius and Great Western , simultaneously cross the Atlantic Ocean from Cork in Ireland for...

Royal Sovereign 1701 A new Establishment extends standardisation of warships to a larger number of dimensions – hence the constraints to...

José Antonio de Gaztañeta The shipyards of Orio and Pasajes, west and east of San Sebastian, build six 60-gun ships of the line, three...

The British Admiralty establishes a standardisation and a specification of the general dimensions for the next vessels to be built. ¤ ...

Last year, a war broke out between Algiers and France at Dey Baba Hassan’s initiative. It implicitly involves the whole Barbary Coast, so the deys of Tripoli and of Tunis as well. This is a weird escalation from the usual tensions provoked by the Barbary pirates against shipping – a lasting plague. From time to time, an European nation retaliates by destroying a few pirate ships. The last expedition was a British one : with some success for just a while, Admiral John Narbor

The United Provinces and France have been at war for five years. They have been struggling for ruling the seas while the Royal Navy has fallen third. A key character, Samuel Pepys, 44 years old, convinces his peers to initiate an unexpected recovery through an extraordinary investment. Samuel Pepys A member of the Royal Society and positioned as the mainstay at the Admiralty, he became Secretary of Admiralty in 1673 and, the same year, a Member of Parliament. His influence

Anthony Deane, 37 years old, Master Shipwright at Portsmouth dockyard since 1668, publishes his Doctrine for Naval Architecture . Anthony Deane Eight years ago, this atypical future master shipwright won an influential patron, and a friend, in Samuel Pepys, of the same age, Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board, himself under the patronage of Admiral Edward Montagu, earl of Sandwich. Deane impressed Pepys for, first he had developed a vision of

The three-deckers have multiplied lately. They also tend to inflate up to tremendous sizes. Their design and building remain quite intricate though. Ironically, this year, four giant vessels have been launched, one in Sweden and three in France, in two countries which have not developed blatant competencies in shipbuilding so far. They have even hired foreign shipwrights to build warships. Six years ago, if we leave aside the surviving English galleons heightened twenty ye

The great three-decker Sovereign of the Seas  reappears as the Royal Sovereign after her rebuilding in the same Royal dockyard of Woolwich where she was originally built and launched in 1637. She has grown by a foot in breadth and by a hundred tons to be a 100-gun vessel, the largest in the world as she has ever been since her first day. ¤ Her original name claimed the rule over the seas for England. Under the Republican Commonwealth (1649-60), she briefly became Commonwe