English ship Cheriton (1656)

Cheriton was a fifth-rate warship of the Commonwealth of England's naval forces, one of six such ships ordered on 28 December 1654, all 6 built in the state dockyards. She was built by Master Shipwright Manley Callis at Deptford Dockyard, and was launched on 16 April 1656 as a 20-gun Fifth rate. She was named Cheriton to commemorate the Roundhead victory at the Battle of Cheriton in 1644.
Her length was recorded as on the keel for tonnage calculation. The breadth was with a depth in hold of. The tonnage was thus calculated at 232 bm tons.
She was originally armed with 20 guns, comprising 16 demi-culverins on the single gundeck and 4 sakers on the quarterdeck. At the Restoration in 1660 she was taken into the Royal Navy and renamed as HMS Speedwell. By 1665 she actually carried 26 guns, comprising the 16 demi-culverins on the gundeck, and now with 10 sakers on the quarterdeck. The Speedwell took part during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665 In the spring of 1676 the Speedwell was sent on a voyage of Arctic exploration to seek the North East Passage under Captain John Wood, but on 29 June she ran ashore on the coast of Novaya Zemlya island, and was broken up by the pounding surf.