English ship Warspite (1596)

Warspite was a great ship (later classed as a second rate) of the English Royal Navy, built at Deptford Dockyard by the master shipwright Edward Stevens, and launched about 1 March 1596. She carried a crew of 300 when at sea, of whom 190 where classed as 'mariners', manning the guns and fighting the ship; 80 as 'sailors', working the sails and ancestors of present-day seamen, and 30 'gunners', the armament specialists.

Following her launching, she was commissioned under Captain Sir Arthur Gorges, on 21 June she led as flagship of Raleigh's expedition one of the four squadrons to Cádiz, and in the same year fought in the Battle of Cádiz. In 1597 and three years later Warspite took part in expeditions to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet which brought the indispensable wealth of the New World. The galleon's next major battle took place during December 1601 in the Irish harbor of Castlehaven where an entire Spanish expedition sent to support the rebellion in Ireland was destroyed. In June 1602 she was off the coast of Spain again, and began an attack on Cezimbra Bay near Lisbon (Portugal) which resulted in the capture of a large carrack loaded with treasure valued at a million ducats.

The next event of Warspite's career was less happy; for during 1627 she took part in the Duke of Buckingham's badly organized and ill-led expedition to support the Huguenots at La Rochelle in western France. It ended in disaster and the galleon was reduced to a hulk.

Warspite was relegated to harbour service in 1635, and was cut down to serve as a lighter. She was sold out of the navy in 1649.