Name HMS Lenox Beam 39 ft 8 in (12.1 m) | Tons burthen 1096 bm Launched 1678 | |
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Fate Sunk as a breakwater, 1756 Length 151 ft 6 in (46.2 m) (gundeck) | ||
HMS Lenox was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Deptford Dockyard on 18 April 1678.
She was rebuilt at Deptford in 1701, remaining as a 70-gun third rate.
In 1702 William Jumper took this ship as his most notable command. Jumper was part of Sir George Rooke's command as he failed to attack Cadiz. Jumper was renowned as one of the first captains to set foot on land during the successful capture of Gibraltar in 1704. He and Captain Wilkes led troops whilst Edward Whitaker tried to obtain permission for a landing. Jumper was mentioned particularly by Whitaker. Lenox's captain was honoured by having Jumper's Bastion in Gibraltar named after him.
Jumper was very lucky to avoid the fate of Sir Cloudesley Shovel in 1707. Jumper arrived in Falmouth 22 October 1707 not realising that Sir Cloudesley and a substantial part of the fleet had been shipwrecked on the Scilly Isles when Shovell and four of his ships (Association, Firebrand, Romney and Eagle) were lost, claiming the lives of nearly 2,000 sailors. Lenox suffered little to no damage and finally managed to reach Portsmouth. On 2 May 1721 Lenox was ordered to be taken to pieces and rebuilt at Chatham as a 70-gun third rate to the 1719 Establishment. She was relaunched on 19 September 1723.
Lenox served until 1756, when she was sunk as a breakwater.
Proposed sailing replica
In 2013 the Lenox Project (based in Deptford, London, UK) put forward a formal proposal to build a full-size sailing replica of the Lenox, to be constructed at a purpose-built museum on part of the site of the old Deptford Dockyard where the original Lenox was built.
By late 2015 the project had gained momentum, with more detailed plans fitting the building of the Lenox into the overall development of Convoys Wharf, as the old Dockyard site is now known.
If and when completed, the Lenox dock and museum would be within walking distance of the Cutty Sark museum in Greenwich.