HMS Hastings (1695)
# HMS Hastings (1695)

HMS Hastings was a 32-gun fifth rate built under contract by Thomas Ellis of Shoreham in 1694/95. She spent her brief career on counter piracy patrols and trade protection duties in Home Waters. She was wrecked in a storm off Waterford in December 1697.

She was the first vessel to carry the name Hastings in the English and Royal Navy.

## Construction and Specifications

She was ordered on 2 April 1694 to be built under contract by Thomas Ellis of Shoreham. She was launched on 5 February 1695. Her dimensions were a gundeck of 108 feet 8 inches (33.12 metres) with a keel of 90 feet 9 inches (27.66 metres) for tonnage calculation with a breadth of 28 feet 2.5 inches (8.60 metres) and a depth of hold of 10 feet 7.5 inches (3.24 metres). Her builder’s measure tonnage was calculated as 38390⁄94 tons (burthen).

The gun armament initially was four demi-culverins on the lower deck (LD) with two pair of guns per side. The upper deck (UD) battery would consist of between twenty and twenty-two 6-pounder guns with ten or eleven guns per side. The gun battery would be completed by four 4-pounder guns on the quarterdeck (QD) with two to three guns per side.

## Commissioned Service 1695-1697

HMS Hastings was commissioned on 18 June 1695 under the command of Captain John Draper for service in the West Indies. She returned to Home Waters with a convoy. She was assigned to Irish Waters in 1696. In 1697 she was escorting timber ships to Kinsale, Ireland.

## Loss

She was wrecked in a storm off Waterford on 10 December 1697 with the loss of all hands.

