HMS Royal George (1756)
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HMS Royal George was a ship of the line of the Royal Navy. A first-rate with 100 guns on three decks, she was the largest warship in the world at the time of her launch on 18 February 1756. Construction at Woolwich Dockyard had taken ten years.
HMS Royal George (right) shown fictitiously as already afloat during the launch of HMS Cambridge in 1755. Painted by John Cleveley the Elder in 1757.
Stern of Royal George: 1779 painting of a model by Joseph Marshall at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Bow of the Royal George, by Marshall at the Science Museum, London
A contemporary illustration of Royal George resting at the bottom of the Solent with her masts sticking up from the surface
First-rate
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In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a first rate was the designation for the largest ships of the line. Originating in the Jacobean era with the designation of Ships Royal capable of carrying at least 400 men, the size and establishment of first-rates evolved over the following 250 years to eventually denote ships of the line carrying at least 80 guns across three gundecks. By the end of the eighteenth century, a first-rate carried no fewer than 100 guns and more than 850 crew, and had a measurement (burthen) tonnage of some 2,000 tons.
The British first-rate HMS Victory
The first-rate Royal George sank at anchor in 1781 after she was flooded through her lower gunports.