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 with a keel of for tonnage calculation with a breadth of and a depth of hold of. Her builder’s measure tonnage was calculated as 383 tons.The gun armament initially was four demi-culverins on the lower deck with two pair of guns per side. The upper deck 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 with two to three guns per side.