HMS Royal William

HMS Royal William is shown here hove-to in an active anchorage, her elaborately carved bow and stern catching the light as they would have appeared following her rebuild of 1714–19 — a lavishly decorated warship as was the style of her age.

Launched at Deptford in 1670 as HMS Prince, a 100-gun first-rate, she served as an English flagship during the Third Anglo-Dutch War and was badly damaged in a fierce duel with the Dutch flagship Zeven Provinciën at the Battle of Solebay in 1672. Rebuilt at Chatham in 1692, she was renamed Royal William and went on to fly the flag of Rear Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell at the Battle of Barfleur that same year, becoming the first ship in the fleet to break the French line.

She was rebuilt again at Portsmouth from 1714, relaunching in 1719 in the ornate, high-decked style captured in this painting. Reduced to an 84-gun second rate in 1756, she went on to take part in the expedition against Rochefort and Wolfe's attack on the French Fortress of Louisbourg before ending her days as a receiving ship at Portsmouth. She was broken up in August 1813, closing out an active career spanning nearly a century and a half.