HMS Sovereign of the Seas, a British man-o'-war, 1500 tons, 102 guns, in choppy seas

Commissioned by King Charles I in 1634 to further enhance Britain's naval prowess and bolster the reputation of the crown, Sovereign of the Seas was the most magnificent ship of her era. Built by Peter Pett, later a Commissioner of the Navy, to the designs of his father Phineas Pett, the King's Master Shipwright, she was launched at Woolwich Dockyard in October 1637. With three full gun decks, carrying 102 bronze canon, she was the most powerfully armed ship of her day. She was also the most extravagantly decorated warship in the Royal Navy; adorned from stern to bow with gilded carvings against a black background she was known by the Dutch as the 'golden devil'. She did not go into battle before the English Civil War intervened in 1642 and was laid up by Parliament during that conflict. She was renamed Sovereign in 1650 and her first engagement was the Battle of Kentish Knock during the First Dutch War on 28 September 1652. Renamed the Royal Sovereign when Charles II came to the throne in 1660, she fought in several battles during the Second and Third Dutch Wars between 1666 and 1673. During 'The Nine Years War' against France, which broke out in 1689, Royal Sovereign was present at the Battle of Beachy Head in 1690. She became leaky and defective with age during the reign of William III, and accidentally caught fire at Chatham in January 1696.
This picture is based on a contemporary engraving of the ship by John Payne.