Royal Sovereign Saluting at Nore. Oil on canvas. 88 x 104. Sovereign of the Seas was a 17th-century warship of the English Navy. She was ordered as a 90-gun first-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, but at launch was armed with 102 bronze guns at the insistence of the king. It was later renamed Sovereign, and then Royal Sovereign. The ship was launched on 13 October 1637 and served from 1638 until 1697, when a fire burnt the ship to the waterline at Chatham. Sovereign of the Seas was ordered in August 1634 on the personal initiative of Charles I of England, who desired a giant Great Ship to be built. The decision provoked much opposition from the Brethren of Trinity House, who pointed out that There is no port in the Kingdome that can harbour this shipp. The wild sea must bee her port, her anchors and cables her safety; if either fayle, the shipp must perish, the King lose his jewel, four or five hundred man must die, and perhaps some great and noble peer. But the King overcame the objections with the help of John Pennington and from May 1635 she was built by Peter Pett, under the guidance of his father Phineas, the king's master shipwright, and was launched at Woolwich Dockyard on 13 October 1637. As the second three-decked first-rate, she was the predecessor of Nelson's Victory, although the Revenge, built in 1577 by Mathew Baker, was the inspiration for her, providing the innovation of a single deck devoted entirely to broadside guns. She was the most extravagantly decorated warship in the Royal Navy, completely adorned from stern to bow with gilded carvings against a black background, made by John Christmas and Mathias Christmas after a design by Anthony van Dyck. The money spent building her, E65,586, helped to create the financial crisis for Charles I that contributed to the English Civil War. Charles had imposed a special tax, the Ship Money, to make possible such large naval expenditure. The gilding alone cost E6,691, which in those days was the price of an average warship. She carried 102 bronze cannon and was thereby at the time the most powerfully armed ship in the world. The cannon were made by John Browne. Sovereign of the Seas had 118 gun ports and only 102 guns. The shape of the bow meant that the foremost gun ports on the lower gun deck were blocked by the anchor cable. Consequently, the fore chase-the guns facing forward-occupied the next ports. There were two demi-cannon drakes-one port, one starboard-some 11.5 feet long, weighing together five tons. They had a bore of 6.4 to 6.75 inches and fired a shot weighing 32 to 36 pounds, using around ten pounds of gunpowder. In the third ports from the bow, there were two 11-foot demi-cannon drakes weighing, together, 4.3 tons. Behind them were twenty cannon drakes, nine feet long, and weighing in all 45.7 tons. In the third port from the stern were two more 11-foot demi-cannon drakes weighing, together, 4.3 tons. The last two ports on either side were occupied by the stern chase-four 10.5-foot demi-cannon drakes weighing a total of 11.4 tons. The middle gun deck had heavy fortified culverins-that is, guns short for their bore-fore and aft. There were two 11.5-foot pieces, weighing 4.8 tons, in the fore chase; four 11.5-foot pieces, weighing 10.2 tons, in the stern chase. Immediately behind the fore chase were two demi-culverin drakes, eight to nine feet long, weighing some 1.9 tons. Then came twenty-two 9.5-foot culverin drakes weighing a total of 30.4 tons. On the upper gun deck there were two 10-foot fortified demi-culverins in the fore chase and two in the stern chase, both pairs weighing 2.8 tons. Between them there were twenty-two demi-culverin drakes, eight to nine feet long, weighing over 21 tons in total. There were eight eight-to-nine-foot demi-culverin drakes weighing 7.7 tons in the forecastle; another six weighing 5.7 tons on the half-deck. The quarter-deck carried two six-foot demi-culverin drake cutts-a cutt, again, being a shorter version of a gun-weighing 16 hundredweight. Then there were another two six-foot culverin cutts, weighing 1.3 tons, aft of the forecastle bulkhead. In all, Sovereign of the Seas carried 155.9 tons of guns-and that did not include the weight of the gun carriages. Altogether they cost E26,441 13s 6d including E3 per piece to have the Tudor rose, a crown and the motto: Carolvs Edgari sceptrvm aqvarum-Charles has established Edgar's sceptre of the waters-engraved on them. The gun carriages, made by Matthew Banks, Master Carpenter for the Office of Ordinance, cost another E558 11s 8d. By 1642, her armament had been reduced to 90 guns. Until 1655, she was also exceptionally large for an English vessel; no other ships of Charles were larger than Prince Royal.