The 'Duchess' before a light breeze, c.1681 (graphite)

Creator: Willem van de Velde, the Elder? Portrait of the three-decker ‘Duchess’ before a light breeze, viewed from abaft the starboard beam. Before the wind under fore course, topsails and half clewed up main course. Firing a salute. A flag at the mizzen and pendant at the mizzen peak. The mastheads of the fore and main are not shown. In the right distance, a stern view of another three-decker. The Duchess was renamed Princess Anne in 1701, Windsor Castle in 1702 and Blenheim in 1706. She was rebuilt in 1709 (R.C. Anderson 'Lists of Men-of-War'). The Duchess was broken up (as Blenheim) in 1763. She was the largest of the second rates built under the programme of 1677. Sections in a shipwright's rough sketch book of that time give her dimensions; these appear to have exceeded those set down for second rate under the 1677 establishment. L.G. Carr Laughton criticised her design becaue her breadth line is shown as below her waterline, so she would have sat low in the water before loading (Mariner's Mirror Vol XVIII p.144-6). Duchess is listed as a hospital ship from 1702-1706 (as Princess Anne). The Blenheim in Baston's engraving presumably shows the same ship.