HMY ''Fubbs'' (or ''Fubbes'') was a Royal Yacht 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 ...

of the

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 ...

. She was scrapped towards the end of the eighteenth century after having been in service for 99 years. She was designed for King Charles II 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 ...

and built in 1682 at Greenwich. She was rigged as a

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...

. The yacht's name came from the King's pet name for one of his mistresses,

Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth Louise Renée de Penancoët de Kéroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth (5 September 1649 – 14 November 1734) was a mistress of Charles II of England. Early life Louise was the daughter of Guillaume de Penancoët, Seigneur de Kéroualle (d. 1690) ...

. At the time 'Fubbs' meant plump, or chubby, a fashionable type of the female form at the time. Apparently she was a fast vessel. After Charles II's death, she was used by

King James II James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...

as one of his fleet of nine personal yachts. She was in service until 1781.

Service

''Fubbs'' underwent several rebuilds during her long career, the first taking place in 1701, when she was rebuilt at

Woolwich Dockyard Woolwich Dockyard (formally H.M. Dockyard, Woolwich, also known as The King's Yard, Woolwich) was an English naval dockyard along the river Thames at Woolwich in north-west Kent, where many ships were built from the early 16th century until th ...

under the supervision of Master Shipwright William Lee. Relaunched in 1701, she was commissioned around May that year under the command of Commander Richard Byron. Byron commanded ''Fubbs'' until 1707, during which time the yacht served as a

bomb ketch A bomb vessel, bomb ship, bomb ketch, or simply bomb was a type of wooden sailing naval ship. Its primary armament was not cannons (long guns or carronades) – although bomb vessels carried a few cannons for self-defence – but mortars mounted ...

in Sir George Rooke's fleet, going out to the Mediterranean in 1703. She was then part of George Byng's squadron in the winter of 1706–1707. She passed to Commander Charles Desborough in 1708, and was back in the Mediterranean in 1714. Captain William Collier took over command in 1716, and he remained until 1734, during which time ''Fubbs'' was ordered to be rebuilt in 1724. She was ordered to be rebuilt on 9 March 1724, and was taken in hand 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 ...

by Master Shipwright Richard Stacey. The work having been completed, she was relaunched on 22 October 1724. William Collier continued as her captain until 1734, when ''Fubbs'' underwent a middling repair at Deptford, which lasted into 1735. One of her last services before the repair was to carry the

Princess Royal Princess Royal is a style customarily (but not automatically) awarded by a British monarch to their eldest daughter. Although purely honorary, it is the highest honour that may be given to a female member of the royal family. There have been se ...

and her new husband,

William IV, Prince of Orange William IV (Willem Karel Hendrik Friso; 1 September 1711 – 22 October 1751) was Prince of Orange from birth and the first hereditary stadtholder of all the United Provinces of the Netherlands from 1747 until his death in 1751. During his whole ...

, from Greenwich to Holland after their marriage. A more comprehensive great repair was carried out at the same dockyard in 1737, and from that year until 1745, ''Fubbs'' was under the command of Captain Francis Dansays. In 1743, it carried Princess Louise to Altona for her marriage to Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark. Dansays was succeeded by Captain Thomas Limeburner from 1746, with Limeburner dying in command in 1750. Further alterations were carried out in late 1749, to 'raise her deck as much as may conveniently'. ''Fubbs'' then passed to Commander Edward Richards in 1751, and he remained her captain until 1756. Richards was succeeded the following year by Commander Henry Dubois. In August 1761 she joined a flotilla led by Admiral of the Fleet

Lord Anson Admiral of the Fleet George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, (23 April 1697 – 6 June 1762) was a Royal Navy officer. Anson served as a junior officer during the War of the Spanish Succession and then saw active service against Spain at the Batt ...

aboard the primary royal yacht HMY ''Royal Caroline''. Anson had orders to convey Duchess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz from

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has ...

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

to marry

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

. Accompanying the yacht, renamed HMY ''Royal Charlotte'' in honour of the occasion, was a squadron of warships and three other royal yachts in addition to ''Fubbs'', HMY ''Mary'', ''Katherine'' and ''Augusta''. During the return voyage the squadron was three times blown over to the Norwegian coast by westerly gales and took ten days to reach Harwich, which it did on 6 September 1761. ''Fubbs'' was recommissioned in December 1763 under Captain

Richard Spry Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Spry (1715– 25 November 1775) was a Royal Navy officer who served as Commander-in-Chief, North American Station. Naval career After an education at Truro Grammar School Spry joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer in ...

, and underwent a small repair in 1765. Her final captain, between 1766 and 1781 was A. T. Percival. ''Fubbs'' was finally withdrawn from service and broken up in July 1781.

Notes

References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fubbs, HMY Royal yachts of the Kingdom of England 1680s ships Ships built in Greenwich