HMS Roebuck (1690)
Videos
HMS Roebuck was a fifth-rate warship in the Royal Navy which, under the command of William Dampier, carried the first British scientific expedition to Australia in 1699. It sank in early 1701. The wre
Arrival of Roebuck in Shark Bay, from a painting by John Charles Allcot (1925)
William Dampier, Roebuck's captain, tasked with surveying the coast of New Holland, by Thomas Murray. National Portrait Gallery, London.
Ascension Island, as Dampier would have seen it, approaching from the south in Roebuck
Clarence Bay, Ascension Island, where the wreck of Roebuck was discovered in 2001
Fifth-rate
Videos
In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a fifth-rate was the second-smallest class of warships in a hierarchical system of six "ratings" based on size and firepower
HMS Roebuck (1690)
…long, and 25.5 ft (8 m) wide. In June 1690 Roebuck was present at the Battle of Beachy Head. Around 1695 the ship was upgraded and listed as a 26-gun fifth-rate. Though plans and models of similar ships survive, being a relatively lowly vessel at its time of construction, no contemporary plans of Roebuck itself…
The fifth-rate HMS Pallas in three positions
Battleship 1