English ship Revenge (1577)
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"Sir Richard Grenville's Gallant Defence of the Revenge", print from 1804
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History | |
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England | |
Name | Revenge |
Builder | Mathew Baker at Deptford Royal Dockyard |
Cost | £4,000 (£1.21 million today) |
Launched | 1577 |
Fate |
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General characteristics | |
Class and type | Race-built galleon |
Tons burthen | 440[1] |
Length | 140 ft (43 m)[1] |
Sail plan | Early full-rigged ship[1] |
Complement | Approx. 260[1] |
Armament |
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Revenge was an English race-built galleon of 46 guns, built in 1577 and captured by the Spanish in 1591, sinking soon afterwards. She was the first of 13 English and Royal Navy ships to bear the name.[Note 1]
Construction
Revenge was built at a cost of £4,000 at the
Armament
The armament of ships of this period was fluid; guns might be added, removed or changed for different types. Revenge was particularly heavily armed during her last cruise: she carried 20 heavy demi-cannon, culverins and demi-culverins on her gun deck, where the sailors slept. On her upper decks were more demi-culverins, sakers and a variety of light weapons, including swivel-mounted breech-loaders, called "fowlers" or "falconets".[1]
Career
Raid on Cadiz (1587)
In 1587, Sir Francis Drake sailed to the Spanish coast and destroyed much materiel that Philip II had accumulated in preparation for the Armada. In consequence, Spanish plans for the invasion of England were put off until the following year.
Battle of Gravelines (1588)
In early 1588, Drake moved his flag from
Drake–Norris expedition (1589)
In 1589 Revenge again put to sea as Drake's flagship, in what was to be a failed attempt to destroy the surviving Spanish fleet at Santander and invade Spanish-controlled Portugal. Returning with the ship in an unseaworthy condition, and without any prizes to his credit Drake fell out of favour with Queen Elizabeth I and was kept ashore until 1595.[3]
Frobisher expedition (1590)
In 1590 Revenge was commanded by Sir Martin Frobisher in an unsuccessful expedition along the coast of Spain to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet.
Capture by the Spanish and sinking (1591)
In order to impede a Spanish naval recovery after the Armada, Sir John Hawkins proposed a blockade of the supply of treasure being acquired from the Spanish Empire in America by a constant naval patrol designed to intercept Spanish ships. Revenge was on such a patrol in the summer of 1591 under the command of Sir Richard Grenville.
The Spanish had dispatched a fleet of some 53 ships under Alonso de Bazán, having under his orders generals Martín de Bertendona and Marcos de Aramburu. Intent upon the capture of the English at Flores in the northern Azores. In late August 1591 the Spanish fleet came upon the English while repairs to the ships caused the crews, many of whom were suffering an epidemic of fever, to be ashore. Most of the ships managed to slip away to sea. Grenville who had many sick men ashore decided to wait for them. When putting to sea he might have gone round the west of Corvo island, but he decided to go straight through the Spaniards, who were approaching from the eastward.
The battle began late on 31 August, when overwhelming force was immediately brought to bear upon the ship, which put up a fierce resistance. For some time he succeeded by skillful tactics in avoiding much of the enemy's fire, but they were all round him and gradually numbers began to tell. As one Spanish ship retired beaten, another took her place, and for fifteen hours the unequal contest continued. Attempts by the Spaniards to board were driven off. San Felipe, a vessel three times her size, tried to come alongside for the Spaniards to board her, along with Aramburu's San Cristóbal. After boarding Revenge, San Felipe was forced to break off. Seven men of the boarding party died, and the other three were rescued by San Bernabé, which grappled her shortly after. The Spanish also lost the galleon Ascensión and a smaller vessel by accident that night, after they collided with each other. Meanwhile, San Cristóbal, which had come to help San Felipe, rammed Revenge underneath her
"Out-gunned, out-fought, and out-numbered fifty-three to one",[6] when the end looked certain Grenville ordered Revenge to be sunk: "Sink me the ship, Master Gunner—sink her, split her in twain! Fall into the hands of God, not into the hands of Spain!"[6] His officers could not agree with this order and a surrender was agreed by which the lives of the officers and crew would be spared. After an assurance of proper conduct, and having held off dozens of Spanish ships, Revenge at last surrendered. The injured Grenville died of wounds two days later aboard the Spanish flagship.
The captured but heavily damaged Revenge never reached Spain, but was lost with her mixed prize-crew of 70 Spaniards and English captives, along with a large number of the Spanish ships in a dreadful storm off the Azores. The battle-damaged Revenge was cast upon a cliff next to the island off
Revenge in literature and the arts
Her final action inspired a popular poem entitled
Al Stewart's song "Lord Grenville" (on his 1976 album Year of the Cat) concerns the end of the Revenge at Flores.[9]
See also
- Dainty, considered a sister ship of Revenge[10]
Notes
- English Restorationof 1660, she did not carry the 'HMS' prefix.
References
- ^ a b c d e John Barratt. "The Revenge at Military History Online". Retrieved 25 November 2008.
- ISBN 978-0-06-053424-0. p.103
- ^ Rodríguez González, Agustín Ramón (2006).Victorias por mar de los españoles. Madrid: Biblioteca de Historia, Grafite Ediciones, pp. 60-62
- ^ La captura del Revenge, 1591 (in Spanish)]
- ISBN 0-333-91942-4
- ^ Lord Tennyson
- ISBN 0-413-77484-8
- ^ Achenbach, Andrew. "Stanford Songs of the Sea; The Revenge; Songs of the Fleet". Gramophone. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
- ^ Jim Sullivan (18 July 2018). "Al Stewart's historical perspective". Cape Cod Times. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
Hey, you start an album with a song ("Lord Grenville") about a naval battle off the Azores in 1591
- ^ Martin, Colin (1975). Full Fathom Five: Wrecks of the Spanish Armada. Viking Press. p. 257.
External links
- La captura del Revenge, 1591 (in Spanish)