HMS Sedgemoor was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, launched at Chatham Dockyard in May 1687.Lavery, Ships of the Line, vol. 1, p. 162. She was named to commemorate the King's victory over the Monmouth Rebellion at the Battle of Sedgemoor in July 1685. One of only three 50-gun ships to be built during James II's brief reign (all three completed with an unusual "square tuck" stern), she was first commissioned on 5 May 1687 under Captain David Lloyd, who was still in command (although actually ashore in Dover) when she was wrecked twenty months later.
Armament All three ships ordered in 1682/3 (all were launched in 1687) were intended to carry 54 guns each - twenty-two 24-pounders on the lower deck, the same number of demi-culverins (9-pounders) on the upper deck, and ten demi-culverin drakes on the quarterdeck. However, each was completed with just 50 guns in wartime service; Sedgmoor actually carried twenty culverins (18-pounders) on the lower deck and thirty sakers (6-pounders) on the upper deck and quarterdeck.
Loss The Sedgemoor was driven ashore and wrecked at South Foreland, in St Margaret's Bay, Dover, Kent on 2 January 1689. Some of her timbers were later salvaged and used in the building of a new Fourth Rate at Chatham.Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail 1603–1714 p120.David Hepper, British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail 1650-1859 (Jean Boudriot Publications, 1997), p.13.
References
Lavery, Brian (1983) The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. . Winfield, Rif (1997), The 50-Gun Ship: A Complete History. Chatham Publishing (1st edition); Mercury Books (2nd edition 2005). . Winfield, Rif (2009), British Warships in the Age of Sail 1603–1714: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. .