HMS ''Rippon'' 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 ...

, built by

Joseph Allin Joseph Allin was an 18th century shipbuilder to the Royal Navy. His works merge with those of his namesake son who was also a Master Shipwright at Portsmouth Dockyard and later Surveyor to the Navy at which point he became Sir Joseph Allin. Jo ...

the elder at

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 launched on 23 August 1712. Orders were issued on 23 June 1730 directing that ''Rippon'' be taken to pieces and rebuilt at

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...

. Unlike almost every other ship of the line rebuild of the time, ''Rippon'' was not reconstructed to the dimensions laid out in the naval establishments, though the differences were not pronounced. As an experiment into increasing the sizes of the Royal Navy's ships in response to the growth of foreign vessels ''Rippon'' had one foot added to the gundeck and keel lengths, and the breadth. In addition , a new-built ship, had previously been built with one foot great breadth over the standard dimensions of the

1719 Establishment The 1719 Establishment was a set of mandatory requirements governing the construction of all Royal Navy warships capable of carrying more than 20 naval long guns. It was designed to bring economies of scale through uniform vessel design, and ens ...

.Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p81. She was relaunched on 29 March 1735. ''Rippon'' served until 1751, when she was broken up.

Notes

References

* Lavery, Brian (2003) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850''. Conway Maritime Press. .

External links

* Ships of the line of the Royal Navy 1710s ships {{UK-line-ship-stub