Henry Grâce à Dieu

With the Henry Grâce à Dieu, although a ship of the Karacke was still built, but the development of the gun port, it was the engineers now possible to install gun batteries deeper in the hull, which on the one hand meant that the lower guns were larger because they On the other hand, the size and armament of the Henry Grâce à Dieu signaled the way to the ships of the line which came out of this ship.

Launching and design:

The construction of the ship was carried out by the direct command of the English King Henry VIII. The launching took place in 1514 and was considered with a big feast, since the ship was the largest warship in his time.

The type of ship was still as a carafe, with the Henry Grâce à Dieu alone represented by their size and armament the pioneer of the later liners.

Equipped the ship was with 4 masts, which were not built in one piece in contrast to the usual way but consisted of several parts. Also, the ship underwent several modifications, in which the sail was changed several times.

Next, the ship had a front and a large rear fort, which tapered up to prevent boarding. In addition, 2 layers planks were installed to withstand the weights of the big guns.

Story:

The English king had the Henry Grâce à Dieu build to support his fleet in an imminent war against France. However, at launch time, peace prevailed between countries and so the ship anchored only in ports and underwent several rebuilds mainly for weight reduction.

Only when the French in 1545 the port Portsmouth attacks was the first use.

On August 23, 1553, a fire ignited in the harbor, which destroyed in addition to port buildings and the Henry Grâce à Dieu.

Ship data:

Henry Grâce à Dieu

The Henry Grâce à Dieu on a historicizing painting by Lüder Arenhold from 1891

This post is also available in: Deutsch (German) Français (French) Italiano (Italian) 简体中文 (Chinese (Simplified)) Русский (Russian) Español (Spanish) العربية (Arabic)