English ship Elizabeth Jonas (1559)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Elizabeth.
English ships fight the Spanish Armada, 1588
History
England
Name: Elizabeth Jonas
Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Laid down: 1557
Launched: 3 July 1559
Fate: Rebuilt 1597-98. Condemned and sold, 1618
General characteristics as newbuilt 1557-59
Class & type: 42-gun great ship
Tons burthen: 740 tons
Length: Unrecorded
Beam: Unrecorded
Depth of hold: Unrecorded
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement: 500
Armament: 42 guns
General characteristics as rebuilt 1597-98[1]
Class & type: 55-gun great ship
Tons burthen: 684 tons
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
Armament:
  • 55 guns
  • 2 × demi-cannon
  • 3 × cannon periers
  • 18 × culverins
  • 13 × demi-culverins
  • 19 × sakers
  • 3 × smaller pieces (fowlers).

The Elizabeth Jonas of 1559 was the first large English galleon, built in Woolwich Dockyard from 1557 and launched in July 1559.

With a nominal burden of 800 tons, she was the largest ship built in England since Henry VIII's prestige warship, the Henry Grace à Dieu. She was ordered under the reign of Queen Mary and initially named Edward, after her late brother, but was renamed when Elizabeth I came to the throne. She was a square-rigged galleon of four masts, including two lateen-rigged mizzenmasts. The 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, but at the time of the Commission of Enquiry in 1618 she was condemned and broken up.

Notes

  1. Oppenheim, A History of the Administration of the Royal Navy 1509-1660, p124.

References

  • R C Anderson. List of English Men of War 1509 - 1649.
  • Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail 1603-1714: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-1-84832-040-6.

External links


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