Name Elizabeth Jonas Out of service 1585-15861597-1598 Sail plan Full rigged ship Launched 3 July 1559 | Laid down 1557 Tons burthen 740 bm Construction started 1557 | |
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Fate Rebuilt 1597-98. Condemned and sold, 1618 Builders Peter Pett, Woolwich Dockyard | ||
The Elizabeth Jonas of 1559 was the first large English galleon, built in Woolwich Dockyard from 1557 and launched in July 1559.
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Construction
The vessel's keel was laid in 1557, for a ship of 800 tons burthen to replace Henry VIII's prestige warship, the Henry Grace à Dieu, which had been destroyed by fire in 1553. Originally intended to be named Edward after ordered Edward VI of England, she was renamed when Elizabeth I came to the throne. She was a square-rigged galleon of four masts, including two lateen-rigged mizzenmasts.
Naval service
Elizabeth Jonas served effectively under the command of Sir Robert Southwell during the battle of the Spanish Armada in 1588. In 1597-98 she was rebuilt as a razee galleon.
In the early seventeenth century she was listed as one of the Navy's Ships Royal, denoting the largest and most prestigious vessels in the fleet. A 1618 commission of enquiry confirmed the designation, but found that years of inactivity had left her entirely unserviceable. Later that year she was broken up for scrap at Woolwich Dockyard.