HMS Looe (1696)
# HMS Looe (1696)

HMS Looe was a 32-gun fifth rate built at Plymouth Dockyard in 1695/96. Shortly after commissioning she was wrecked in Baltimore Bay, Ireland on 30 April 1697.

She was the first vessel to bear the name Looe in the English and Royal Navy.

## Construction and Specifications

She was ordered on 1 April 1695 to be built at Plymouth Dockyard under the guidance of Master Shipwright Elias Waffe. She was launched on 5 August 1696. Her dimensions were a gundeck of 110 feet 0 inches (33.53 metres) with a keel of 93 feet 0 inches (28.35 metres) for tonnage calculation with a breadth of 28 feet 0 inches (8.53 metres) and a depth of hold of 11 feet 0 inches (3.35 metres). Her builder’s measure tonnage was calculated as 38480⁄94 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 1697

She was commissioned in 1697 under the command of Captain Richard Paul for service in the English Channel.

## Loss

She was wrecked in Baltimore Bay, Ireland on 30 April 1697.

