''Grace Dieu'' was the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

of King

Henry V of England Henry V (16 September 1386 – 31 August 1422), also called Henry of Monmouth, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1413 until his death in 1422. Despite his relatively short reign, Henry's outstanding military successes in the ...

and one of the largest ships of her time. Launched in 1418, she sailed on only one voyage and was subsequently laid up at anchor in the

River Hamble The River Hamble is located in south Hampshire, England. It rises near Bishop's Waltham and flows for through Botley, Bursledon, and Lower Swanwick before entering Southampton Water between Hamble Common and Warsash. The Hamble is tidal fo ...

. She burned in 1439 after being struck by lightning. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.

Design and construction

''Grace Dieu'' was built to a design proposed by William Soper, a

burgess __NOTOC__ Burgess may refer to: People and fictional characters * Burgess (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Burgess (given name), a list of people Places * Burgess, Michigan, an unincorporated community * Burgess, Missouri, U ...

of Southampton and Clerk of the King's Ships. She was clinker-built with three planks nailed together along each part of her hull and waterproofed with tar and moss sandwiched between the timbers. As constructed she was long with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

, comparable in size with HMS ''Victory'' and twice as large as '' Mary Rose''.Wilson 2013 Estimates of her weight range between 1,400 tons and 2,750 tons. Two smaller ships, ''Valentine'' and ''Falcon'', were built to escort her. A dock was specially built for her construction near Town Quay in Southampton. The remains of ''Grace Dieu'' suggest that she was built in a hurry, with some of the planks and ribs left only roughly finished. She was a vast ship requiring 2,735 oak, 1,145 beech, and 14 ash trees for her timbers. When completed in 1418, she was one of the

largest wooden ships This is a list of the world's longest wooden ships. The vessels are sorted by ship length including bowsprit, if known. Finding the world's longest wooden ship is not straightforward since there are several contenders, depending on which definit ...

of her time. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, regarded her as "the fairest esselthat ever man saw," while the Florentine Captain of the Galleys, Luca di Masa degli Albizzi, remarked that despite his lifetime at sea he had never seen "so large and beautiful a construction". ''Grace Dieu'' was designed for use in battle against Genoas formidable fleet of

carrack A carrack (; ; ; ) is a three- or four- masted ocean-going sailing ship that was developed in the 14th to 15th centuries in Europe, most notably in Portugal. Evolved from the single-masted cog, the carrack was first used for European trade fr ...

s, that city being at the time the ally of France and enemy of England. To this end she was built with high sides and a

prow The bow () is the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is usually most forward when the vessel is underway. The aft end of the boat is the stern. Prow may be used as a synonym for bow or it may mean the forward-most part ...

that rose more than , so that her archers could fire from above into the much lower carracks that she would run alongside. However, by the time she was completed England had firm control over the Channel and was at peace with France following the Treaty of Troyes.

1420 voyage

''Grace Dieu'' and her escorts appear to have only set sail once, in 1420, under the command of the Earl of Devon and with orders to make a cruise down the English Channel. The expedition suffered a

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military, of a crew or of a crew of pirates) to oppose, change, or overthrow an organization to which they were previously loyal. The term is commonly used for a rebellion among member ...

even before leaving port, when the crew objected to the presence of a contingent of soldiers and archers brought aboard to guard the vessel. ''Grace Dieu''s sailors attempted to prevent the soldiers from boarding by abusing the clerk who was registering their names and threatening to throw the register itself into the sea. When the ship finally left port, nine of the crew incited a further mutiny against the captain by refusing to take their stations and insisting that the cruise be abandoned. ''Grace Dieu'' was brought into the nearest port, St. Helen's on the Isle of Wight, and the crew departed. A clerk who questioned their loyalty as they departed was assaulted and had his clothing torn.

Service after Henry V's death and loss

When

Henry V Henry V may refer to: People * Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026) * Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125) * Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161) * Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227) * Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (121 ...

died in 1422 his ships were treated as his private property rather than as part of the kingdom's navy. Many were sold off to pay his debts. In 1430 William Soper, by now in charge of the administration of the entire navy, dined with the commander of the Florentine merchant fleet on board ''Grace Dieu''. Subsequently, ''Grace Dieu'' was laid-up in the

. Already dismasted and stripped of equipment, she was burnt to the waterline after being set ablaze by a bolt of lightning in 1439.

Rediscovery

The remains of ''Grace Dieu'' are still in the River Hamble at Bursledon, near Southampton, Hampshire. Until 1933 the wreck was believed to be that of a Danish galley or a nineteenth-century merchant ship, but in that year a proper survey established both the true identity of the wreck, and the great size of the ship. The site was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act on 5 February 1974 and was excavated by Channel 4's archaeology programme '' Time Team'' in 2004 for the 2005 series. 50 metres from the remains lie those of another vessel, believed to be ''Grace Dieus contemporary ''

Holigost ''Holigost'' (sometimes rendered as ''Holy Ghost'') was a carrack of the English navy rebuilt for Henry V. Originally a Castillian vessel called ''Santa Clara,'' she was captured –14. She served until 1422 and later sank at her moorings. Her ...

''.

References

External links

Team'' excavation site
Archived 15 February 2005, retrieved 26 January 2021.
Aerial view of excavation site

"''Grace Dieu'' and the possible site of the ''Holigost''" National Heritage List for England

Bibliography

* * *R C Anderson, ''The Bursledon Ship'', Mariner's Mirror, Vol 20, No.2, 1934. *M W Prynne, ''Henry V's Grace Dieu'', Mariner's Mirror, Vol 54, No.2, 1968. *N A M Rodger, ''The Safeguard of the Sea, A Naval History of Britain 660-1649'' (London 1997). *S Rose, ''Henry V's Grace Dieu and Mutiny at Sea: Some new evidence'', Mariner's Mirror, Vol 63, No.1, 1977. *B Wilson, Empire of the Deep; The Rise and Fall of the British Navy, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Grace Dieu (Ship) Ships of the English navy Individual sailing vessels Protected Wrecks of England Shipwrecks in rivers Ships built in Southampton 15th-century ships History of Hampshire 1418 in England 1439 in England