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HMS Defiance (1675)
HMS ''Defiance'' was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Phineas Pett II at Chatham Dockyard, and launched in 1675. In the summer of 1678, ''Defiance'' was under the command of John Ernle. She was rebuilt at Woolwich Dockyard in 1695, again as a 64-gun ship. ''Defiance'' was part of a squadron under Vice-Admiral John Benbow in August 1702. In an action between Benbow's squadron and the squadron of the French Admiral Jean du Casse, ''Defiance'' under Captain Richard Kirkby was one of the ships that refused to engage. Along with , ''Defiance'' bore away from the French squadron after only two or three broadsides, and stood out of range. At his court-martial, Captain Kirkby was convicted of cowardice and sentenced to be shot.Ships of the Old Navy, ''Breda'' (1692) In 1707, she was rebuilt for a second time, relaunching from Deptford Dockyard as a 66-gun third rate. ''Defiance'' was reduced to a fourth rate In 1603 all English warships with ...
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Kingdom Of Great Britain
The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a Sovereign state, sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of Union 1707, which united the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England (which included Wales) and Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland to form a single kingdom encompassing the whole island of Great Britain and its outlying islands, with the exception of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The unitary state was governed by a single Parliament of Great Britain, parliament at the Palace of Westminster, but distinct legal systems – English law and Scots law – remained in use. The formerly separate kingdoms had been in personal union since the 1603 "Union of the Crowns" when James VI of Scotland became King of England and King of Ireland. Since James's reign, who had been the first to refer to himself as "king of Great Britain", a political un ...
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John Benbow
Vice-Admiral John Benbow (10 March 16534 November 1702) was an English officer in the Royal Navy. He joined the navy aged 25 years, seeing action against Algerian pirates before leaving and joining the merchant navy where he traded until the Glorious Revolution of 1688, whereupon he returned to the Royal Navy and was commissioned. Benbow fought against France during the Nine Years War (1688–97), serving on and later commanding several English vessels and taking part in the battles of Beachy Head, Barfleur and La Hogue in 1690 and 1692. He went on to achieve fame during campaigns against Salé and Moor pirates; laying siege to Saint-Malo; and fighting in the West Indies against France during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). Benbow's fame and success earned him both public notoriety and a promotion to admiral. He was then involved in an incident during the action of August 1702, where a number of his captains refused to support him while commanding a squadro ...
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Fourth Rate
In 1603 all English warships with a compliment 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 into three tiers, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth rates. Up to the end of the 17th century the number of guns and the compliment size was adjusted until the rating system was actually clarified. A 'Fourth Rate' was nominally a ship of over thirty guns with a complement of 140 men. In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorize sailing warships in the 18th century, a fourth-rate was a ship of the line with 46 to 60 guns mounted. They were phased out of ship of the line service during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, as their usefulness was declining; though they were still in service, especially on distant stations such as the East Indies. ''Fourth-rates'' took many forms, initially as small two decked warships, later as larg ...
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Deptford Dockyard
Deptford Dockyard was an important naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and many significant events and ships have been associated with it. Founded by Henry VIII in 1513, the dockyard was the most significant royal dockyard of the Tudor period and remained one of the principal naval yards for three hundred years. Important new technological and organisational developments were trialled here, and Deptford came to be associated with the great mariners of the time, including Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh. The yard expanded rapidly throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, encompassing a large area and serving for a time as the headquarters of naval administration, and the associated Victualling Yard became the Victualling Board's main depot. Tsar Peter the Great visited the yard officially incognito in 1698 to learn shipbuildi ...
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Court-martial
A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment. In addition, courts-martial may be used to try prisoners of war for war crimes. The Geneva Conventions require that POWs who are on trial for war crimes be subject to the same procedures as would be the holding military's own forces. Finally, courts-martial can be convened for other purposes, such as dealing with violations of martial law, and can involve civilian defendants. Most navies have a standard court-martial which convenes whenever a ship is lost; this does not presume that the captain is suspected of wrongdoing, but merely that the circumstances surrounding the loss of the ship be made part of the official record. M ...
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Richard Kirkby (Royal Navy)
Richard Kirkby (c. 1658 – 16 April 1703) was an officer of the Royal Navy during the eighteenth century. He rose to the rank of captain but was later tried at a court-martial for his conduct during the action of August 1702, and being convicted of cowardice and disobedience was executed by firing squad. Family and early years Kirkby was born the fourth child and second son of Richard Kirkby, a justice of the peace and Member of Parliament for Lancaster, and his second wife, Isabel, daughter of Sir William Hudleston of Cumberland. He joined the Royal Navy and passed his naval lieutenant's examination on 28 March 1689. He was then appointed as second lieutenant of HMS ''Advice''. He had powerful relatives, including Arthur Herbert and Sir John Lowther, the latter being one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. They secured him a promotion to captain on 12 February 1690, with his first appointment being to the hired ship HMS ''Success''. He was sent as part of ...
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Jean Du Casse
Jean-Baptiste du Casse (2 August 1646 – 25 June 1715) was a French privateer, admiral, and colonial administrator who served throughout the Atlantic World during the 17th and 18th centuries. Likely born 2 August 1646 in Saubusse, near Pau (Béarn), to a Huguenot family, du Casse joined the French merchant marine and served in the East India Company and the slave-trading Compagnie du Sénégal The Compagnie du Sénégal ( French for the "Senegal Company" or, more literally, the "Company of the Senegal") was a 17th-century French chartered company that administered the territories of Saint-Louis and Gorée island as part of French S .... Later, he joined the French Navy and took part in several victorious expeditions during the War of the League of Augsburg in the West Indies and Spanish South America. During the War of the Spanish Succession, he participated in several key naval battles, including the Battle of Málaga (1704), Battle of Málaga and the Siege of Barc ...
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Kingdom Of France
The Kingdom of France ( fro, Reaume de France; frm, Royaulme de France; french: link=yes, Royaume de France) is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe since the High Middle Ages. It was also an early colonial power, with possessions around the world. France originated as West Francia (''Francia Occidentalis''), the western half of the Carolingian Empire, with the Treaty of Verdun (843). A branch of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule until 987, when Hugh Capet was elected king and founded the Capetian dynasty. The territory remained known as ''Francia'' and its ruler as ''rex Francorum'' ("king of the Franks") well into the High Middle Ages. The first king calling himself ''rex Francie'' ("King of France") was Philip II, in 1190, and officially from 1204. From then, France was continuously ruled by the Capetians and their cadet lin ...
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Action Of August 1702
The action of August 1702 was an inconclusive naval battle that took place from 19–25 August 1702 O.S. between an English squadron under Vice-Admiral John Benbow and a French under Admiral Jean du Casse, off Cape Santa Marta on the coast of present-day Colombia, South America, during the War of the Spanish Succession. Benbow vigorously attacked the French squadron, but the refusal of most of his captains to support the action allowed du Casse to escape. Benbow lost a leg during the engagement and died of illness about two months later. Two of the captains were convicted of cowardice and shot. Benbow's resolution to pursue the French, in what proved to be his last fight, proved irresistible to the public imagination. The events of the fight inspired a number of ballads, usually entitled ''Admiral Benbow'' or ''Brave Benbow'', which were still favourites among British sailors more than a century later. Prelude Upon the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession, Benbow was s ...
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Woolwich Dockyard
Woolwich Dockyard (formally H.M. Dockyard, Woolwich, also known as The King's Yard, Woolwich) was an English Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard along the river Thames at Woolwich in north-west Kent, where many ships were built from the early 16th century until the late 19th century. William Camden called it 'the Mother Dock of all England'. By virtue of the size and quantity of vessels built there, Woolwich Dockyard is described as having been 'among the most important shipyards of seventeenth-century Europe'. During the Age of Sail, the yard continued to be used for shipbuilding and repair work more or less consistently; in the 1830s a specialist factory within the dockyard oversaw the introduction of Steamship, steam power for ships of the Royal Navy. At its largest extent it filled a 56-acre site north of Woolwich Church Street, between Warspite Road and New Ferry Approach; 19th-century naval vessels were fast outgrowing the yard, however, and it eventually closed in 1869 (th ...
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Naval Ensign Of Great Britain (1707-1800)
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It includes anything conducted by surface Naval ship, ships, amphibious warfare, amphibious ships, submarines, and seaborne naval aviation, aviation, as well as ancillary support, communications, training, and other fields. The strategic offensive role of a navy is Power projection, projection of force into areas beyond a country's shores (for example, to protect Sea lane, sea-lanes, deter or confront piracy, ferry troops, or attack other navies, ports, or shore installations). The strategic defensive purpose of a navy is to frustrate seaborne projection-of-force by enemies. The strategic task of the navy also may incorporate nuclear deterrence by use of submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Naval operations can be broa ...
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John Ernle (naval Officer)
Sir John Ernle, or Ernele (1647 – 25 October 1686), of Burytown, Broad Blunsdon, Wiltshire, served as a Royal Navy captain in the Third Anglo-Dutch War, and was briefly a Member of Parliament for Calne. Career The son of Sir John Ernle, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ernle was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, after which he became a member of Lincoln's Inn.Oliver Lawson Dick, note to John Aubrey's ''Brief Lives'' (1949 edition): "ERNLE, SIR JOHN (1647-86), of Exeter College, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn, sat as MP for Calne." He went on to serve in the Royal Navy, commanding ships of the line. At the Battle of Solebay of 1672, Ernle commanded HMS ''Dover'', and during the battle he saved Sir John Harman and the ''Charles'' from a fire ship. By the summer of 1678, he was in command of the new 64-gun ship of the line HMS ''Defiance''.Henry Teonge, ''The Diary of Henry Teonge: Chaplain on Board HM's Ships Assistance, Bristol and Royal Oak 1675-1679'' (1927 edition) p. 252 Althoug ...
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