The Royal Oak was an English sailing line ship and the second ship of that name built in the 17th century. It was to be followed by a number of other ships of the Royal Navy that also bore the same name in the centuries to come .
The HMS Royal Oak was in the yard in Deptford ( London built) and ran 1674 from the pile . She had been designed as a 3rd rank ship of the line and, with 74 cannons in two decks, had almost the maximum number of guns that were intended for this rank of ship of the line. In 1684 the transom of the ship, which had previously shown the coat of arms of the House of Stuart , was adapted to the newly built ships of 1677. In 1713 the Royal Oak was finally completely dismantled and reassembled. This gave it a completely new look and again a new transom. In the first year of the Seven Years' War in Europe (1756/57) the Royal Oak was limped , which means that they were decommissioned and their masts removed. The Hulk henceforth served as a prison ship in Plymouth . In the last year of the war (1763) the Royal Oak was finally scrapped .
The Army History Museum in Vienna owns a large model of the Royal Oak , which is on display in the Marinesaal and shows the ship after the renovation in 1684. It was only identified as a model of the Royal Oak in 1990 and originally came to the Habsburg port city of Trieste, presumably by George Forbes, 3rd Earl of Granard (1685–1765) . Forbes should from 1719 as Commander in Chief of the Navy on behalf of Emperor Charles VI. (r. 1711–1740) build a powerful Austrian navy, but failed due to the lack of financial commitment and the incomprehension of the Habsburg administration, so that he resigned from his post after two years. The Army History Museum also has a relief of the transom of the Royal Oak , as it was presented from 1684. This relief was probably made in the 19th century based on the above-mentioned model. In 2018 it was purchased from an extensive portfolio of historical marine properties. Its dating “erb [aut]. 1697 “cannot be proven on the basis of sources and must therefore be regarded as a mere assumption.
literature
Rif Winfield: British Warships in the Age of Sail 1603-1714. Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley 2009, ISBN 978-1-84832-040-6 .
