English ship Happy Entrance (1619)

History
England
Name	Happy Entrance
Builder	Burrell, Deptford
Launched	1619
Fate	Burnt, 1658
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	Middling ship
Length	96 ft (29 m) (keel)
Beam	32 ft 2 in (9.80 m)
Depth of hold	13 ft 1 in (3.99 m)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship

Happy Entrance[Note 1] was a middling ship of the English navy, built by Andrew Burrell at Deptford and launched in 1619.[1] King James I originally named the ship Buckingham's Entrance to mark the appointment of his favourite, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, as Lord High Admiral of England. But she was subsequently renamed.[2]

During the Second English Civil War she served on the side of Parliament under the command of Richard Badiley. In April 1649, a party of seamen from Happy Entrance captured and burnt the Royalist ship Antelope at Hellevoetsluis in the Netherlands.[3] Antelope was then over 100 years old and was a veteran of the 1588 campaign against the Spanish Armada.[4]

Happy Entrance was present at the Battle of the Gabbard on the 2–3 June 1653, as part of the Blue Squadron. She was under the command of Captain Richard Newbery.

Happy Entrance was destroyed by fire in 1658.[1]

Notes

1. The 'HMS' prefix was not used until the middle of the Eighteenth Century, but is sometimes applied retrospectively

Citations

1. Lavery, Ships of the Line, vol. 1, p. 158.
2. Corbett, Julian Stafford. England in the Mediterranean. A study of the rise and influence of British power within the Straits, 1603-1713 ... With a map. pp. 74–75. OCLC 754149865.
3. Clowes, Royal Navy, vol. 2, p. 120.
4. Clowes, Royal Navy vol. 1, p. 580, 588-589.

References

• Clowes, William Laird: The Royal Navy. A History from the Earliest Times to 1900, vols. 1-2,1896-1898
• Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.