HMS ''Medway'' was a 60-gun

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 i ...

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, launched at

Sheerness Dockyard Sheerness Dockyard also known as the Sheerness Station was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the Sheerness peninsula, at the mouth of the River Medway in Kent. It was opened in the 1660s and closed in 1960. Location In the Age of Sail, the R ...

on 20 September 1693. ''Medway'', together with ''Chatham'' and ''Triton'', captured the French ''Auguste'' on 19 August 1705.Roche (2005), p. 57. She was rebuilt according to the

1706 Establishment The 1706 Establishment was the first formal set of dimensions for ships of the Royal Navy. Two previous sets of dimensions had existed before, though these were only for specific shipbuilding programs running for only a given amount of time. In c ...

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 a ...

, and relaunched on 1 August 1718. ''Medway'' was hulked in 1740. She was eventually broken up in 1749.

Notes

References

*Lavery, Brian (2003) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850''. Conway Maritime Press. . *Roche, Jean-Michel (2005) ''Dictionnaire des Bâtiments de la Flotte de Guerre Française de Colbert à nos Jours.'' (Group Retozel-Maury Millau), Vol. 1. Ships of the line of the Royal Navy 1690s ships {{UK-line-ship-stub