HMS Mordaunt (1681)

History
Drawing of Mordaunt by Willem van de Velde the Elder
England
Name:	Mordaunt
Builder:	William Castle, Deptford
Launched:	1681
Acquired:	7 October 1682
Commissioned:	20 May 1684
In service:	1684–1693
Fate:	Sank off Cuba, 21 November 1693
General characteristics
Class and type:	46-gun ship of the line
Tons burthen:	567 ²⁶⁄₉₄ (bm)
Length:	122 ft 6 in (37.3 m) (gundeck) 101 ft 9 in (31.0 m) (keel)
Beam:	32 ft 4.5 in (9.9 m)
Depth of hold:	13 ft 0 in (4.0 m)
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	230 at commissioning
Armament:	46 guns comprising: Lower deck: 20 × 12-pounder guns Upper deck: 18 x 8-pounder guns Quarterdeck: 6 × 5 ¹⁄₄-pounder sakers

HMS Mordaunt was a 46-gun ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Deptford in 1681 and in active service during the Nine Years' War with France. After extensive service in both European and Caribbean waters, Mordaunt foundered off the coast of Cuba on 21 November 1693.

Plans for the vessel's construction were developed in the late 1670s by a private syndicate headed by Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough, with the publicised intention that she be used solely as a merchantman. A contract for her construction was issued in 1680 to William Castle, a commercial shipwright at Deptford, initially on behalf of the syndicate and then solely in the name of Charles Mordaunt. Castle set to work immediately, and construction proceeded apace. As built, the new ship was 122 ft 6 in (37.3 m) long with a 101 ft 9 in (31.0 m) keel, a beam of 32 ft 4.5 in (9.868 m), and a hold depth of 13 ft 0 in (4.0 m). She was a large vessel, measuring 567 ²⁶⁄₉₄ (tons burthen). Castle included a total of 56 gun ports in Mordaunt's design but several were too constrained by internal fittings to house a gun, and in practice the vessel was not capable of carrying more than 48 cannons.

Even with 48 guns, Mordaunt would be very heavily armed for a merchant craft, and there were public rumours that she was actually intended as a private warship. In early 1681 Spain's Ambassador to England wrote to Admiralty expressing his fear that the vessel would be sold to the Elector of Brandenburg, who was assembling a fleet to prey on Spanish shipping. Admiralty responded by issuing a warrant on 30 June 1681 for the seizing of the vessel, accompanied by a request that Mordaunt attend the Admiralty Court to explain his intentions in having her constructed. In advance of the hearing, Admiralty itself advised the court that Mordaunt was "built frigate-fashion and is as good a ship as His Majesty's ship [the 48-gun] Tyger." Charles Mordaunt appeared before the court in July to attest that the vessel was indeed a merchantman, and that the heavy armament was simply to enable her to sail without convoy protection. The Court resolved to return the vessel to Mordaunt but obliged him to guarantee that she would not be used for military purposes.

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Wikipedia