The ''Antelope'' was a ship of the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Tudor navy The Tudor navy was the navy of the Kingdom of England under the ruling Tudor dynasty (1485–1603). The period involved important and critical changes that led to the establishment of a permanent navy and laid the foundations for the future Ro ...

, launched in 1546. She was rebuilt three times, in 1558, 1581 and 1618. She thus served in various forms from the time of King Henry VIII to the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. She is mostly remembered for being a part of the fleet that defeated the Spanish Armada.

History of the ship

According to the royal inventory of 1547, the ''Antelope'' had a crew of 170 with 30 gunners. Her armaments included; a brass

demi-cannon The demi-cannon was a medium-sized cannon, similar to but slightly larger than a culverin and smaller than a regular cannon, developed in the early 17th century. A full cannon fired a 42-pound shot, but these were discontinued in the 18th centur ...

; 3 brass

culverin A culverin was initially an ancestor of the hand-held arquebus, but later was used to describe a type of medieval and Renaissance cannon. The term is derived from the French "''couleuvrine''" (from ''couleuvre'' "grass snake", following the ...

s; 4 iron

demi-culverin The demi-culverin was a medium cannon similar to but slightly larger than a saker and smaller than a regular culverin developed in the late 16th century. Barrels of demi-culverins were typically about long, had a calibre of and could weigh up t ...

s; 3 sakers; 4 port pieces; 2 slings; 2 demi-slings; 2 quarter-slings; 11 iron single bases; 8 hagbuts and 4 hail-shot pieces. Handarms included 50 yew bows, 86 bills, and 72 Moorish pikes. The ''Antelope'' was described in a navy list of 5 January 1548 as a "galleass" of 300 tons built in 1546 with a crew of 200 and armed with 4

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...

and 40

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

gun A gun is a ranged weapon designed to use a shooting tube (gun barrel) to launch projectiles. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns/cannons, spray guns for painting or pressure washing, p ...

s. As depicted in the

Anthony Roll The Anthony Roll is a written record of ships of the English Tudor navy of the 1540s, named after its creator, Anthony Anthony. It originally consisted of three rolls of vellum, depicting 58 naval vessels along with information on their size, ...

, she was a flush-decked vessel carrying a battery of guns on the lower deck; she carried a four-masted rig and her lower deck was pierced for nine pairs of gunports. In 1549 she was re-classed from a galleass to a 'ship'. In action against Scotland, the ''Antelope'' was one of 12 ships dispersed by a storm off Flamborough Head on Wednesday 27 December 1559. Captain Southwick brought her back to join William Winter's fleet in the Firth of Forth. She was rebuilt in 1558 as a galleon of 341 tons, acquiring a forecastle and a half-deck aft. In 1581 she was again rebuilt as a race-built galleon of 400 tons. A more detailed description is given in a navy list of 1603 where she is said to have measured 350 tons and had a crew of 160 (consisting of 114 sailors, 16 gunners and 30 soldiers). At this time, ''Antelope'' carried 26 heavy and 12 light guns. She participated in the campaign against the Spanish Armada in 1588, when she had a crew of 170 and mounted 30 guns. The ''Antelope'' was captained by Sir Henry Palmer and belonged to the squadron of Lord Henry Seymour in which she took part in the Battle of Gravelines and the chase of the Spanish fleet to the north. In 1597 ''Antelope'', then commanded by Captain Sir Thomas Vavasour, participated in the unsuccessful expedition against the

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led by the

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and Sir

Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebelli ...

. She was again rebuilt in 1618 and classified as a middling ship of 450 tons and 34 guns. The only remarkable action in her later career is her participation in Sir

Robert Mansell Sir Robert Mansell (1573–1656) was an admiral of the English Royal Navy and a Member of Parliament (MP), mostly for Welsh constituencies. His name was sometimes given as Sir Robert Mansfield and Sir Robert Maunsell. Early life Mansel was a ...

s disappointing expedition against Algiers in 1620/1621. In the beginning of October 1624 ''Antelope'' - then under the command of Sir Thomas Button - was hit by a storm and driven onto the

Goodwin Sands Goodwin Sands is a sandbank at the southern end of the North Sea lying off the Deal coast in Kent, England. The area consists of a layer of approximately depth of fine sand resting on an Upper Chalk platform belonging to the same geologi ...

after her anchor cables where cut by a merchant ship. Though she lost all her masts and her rudder she got off into the Downs and was repaired by

Phineas Pett Phineas Pett (1 November 1570 – August 1647) was a shipwright and First Resident Commissioner of Chatham Dockyard and a member of the Pett dynasty. Phineas left a memoir of his activities which is preserved in the British Library and was publi ...

whose son John had been on board. He left a description of this incident in his ''Autobiography''. During the

Second English Civil War The Second English Civil War took place between February to August 1648 in Kingdom of England, England and Wales. It forms part of the series of conflicts known collectively as the 1639-1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which include the 1641� ...

she was among the ships that were brought over to the

royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...

side by vice admiral

William Batten Sir William Batten (1601 to 5 October 1667) was an English naval officer and administrator from Somerset, who began his career as a merchant seaman, served as second-in-command of the Parliamentarian navy during the First English Civil War, th ...

in June 1648 and carried into

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in the

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. When Prince Rupert was made commander of the badly equipped royalist fleet, he sold ''Antelopes brass guns to fit out some other ships. In the spring of 1649 ''Antelope'' was ready for sea, but her weak crew was surprised by a raid of seamen from the parliamentarian ship ''Happy Entrance'' who took the ship without a fight and immediately destroyed her.Clowes, Royal Navy, vol. 2, p. 120.

Notes

References

* Clowes, William Laird: The Royal Navy. A History from the Earliest Times to 1900, vols. 1-2,1896-1898 * Lavery, Brian (2003) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650–1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. . * Winfield, Rif (2009) ''British Warships in the Age of Sail 1603-1714: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates''. Seaforth Publishing. . * Knighton, C. S. & Loades, David M., ''The Anthony Roll of Henry VIII's Navy: Pepys Library 2991 and British Library Additional MS 22047 with related documents.'' Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot. 2000. {{DEFAULTSORT:Antelope (1546) Ships of the English navy English Civil War 16th-century ships