The Vanguard was a 36-gun galleon of the English Tudor navy, built by Master Shipwright Matthew Baker and launched in 1586 from Woolwich Dockyard. She was the first ship of the navy to bear the name.
She played a key part in the action against the Spanish Armada in 1588.
Construction
Vanguard was ordered by Elizabeth I at a cost of at around £3000. Work was underway at Woolwich Dockyard by March 1586, under the supervision of shipwright Mathew Baker. Vanguard was one of a generation of race-built galleons that represented the pinnacle of ship design at that time.
By October 1587, Vanguard was being held in readiness at Chatham, needing only caulking before being seaworthy.
Career
On commissioning, Vanguard joined the squadron under the command of Sir Henry Palmer which was blockading the coast of the Low Countries. The ship was refitted at Sheerness in the winter of 1587–1588, and with William Wynter in command, rejoined the forces patrolling off Dunkirk. In April that year, while much of the fleet was sent to Plymouth to guard against the expected Spanish invasion, Vanguard was part of a squadron under Lord Henry Seymour that was ordered to remain at the Downs to watch the army of the Duke of Parma in the Spanish Netherlands. Seymour's squadron, including Vanguard, rejoined the main English fleet off Calais on 7 August, and took part in the Battle of Gravelines the next day.
George Beeston anchored the ship in the Forth at Leith on 1 June 1589, in order to deliver messages to the court of James VI. One of Beeston's crew, the trumpeter, was killed ashore in Edinburgh in a fight with Spanish sailors.
In January 1590, Vanguard was one of two ships sent to withdraw Lord Willoughby's expeditionary force from France.
In 1594, Vanguard was recommissioned to serve as the flagship of Martin Frobisher, when Frobisher was ordered to help drive out Spanish forces from Brittany, a campaign that culminated in the Siege of Fort Crozon and the fatal wounding of Frobisher.
On 1 June 1596, Vanguard, under the command of Sir Robert Mansell, set out from Plymouth as part of an Anglo-Dutch expedition against Cádiz, Spain, under the overall command of Lord Howard of Effingham and the Earl of Essex, with Vanguard carrying Sir John Wingfield and his company of soldiers. The fleet arrived off Cadíz on 20 June, and attacked at dawn the next day. Vanguard, together with , were tasked with fighting Spanish galleys, while other ships took on the four Spanish galleons that guarded the entrance to the port. The galleys were driven back, and Vanguard joined the fight against the four Spanish galleons, and within a few hours, the Spanish warships were captured or sunk, and Cadíz captured. Vanguard was paid off at Chatham Dockyard on her return from the expedition.
Vanguard recommissioned in the summer of 1597, rejoining Palmer's squadron with its duty of patrolling the English Channel and watching Spanish activities in France and the Netherlands. In October that year, when news of the Third Spanish Armada reached England, Vanguard, along with whatever other ships were available, were ordered out to engage the Spanish force. Severe storms disrupted the Spanish fleet, however, and no battle followed. In February 1598, when a Spanish convoy was spotted entering Calais, Vanguard was one of a small group of ships, that were sent to investigate and if necessary attack, as it was feared that this was an attempted Spanish raid or invasion on south-east England. In fact this was only a supply convoy. Later that month, Vanguard ferried Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury to Dieppe as part of a diplomatic mission to King Henry IV of France. Vanguard continued to serve with the Channel squadron until July 1598.
Vanguard was taken to pieces in 1599 and rebuilt for the first time at Chatham dockyard, and was in dry dock until 1600.
In June 1600, Vanguard, and , under the overall command of Richard Leveson, set out on a mission to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet off the Azores, but they failed to find them, not seeing a single Spanish ship before they returned in October that year.
From 1615–17, Vanguard she was rebuilt for a second time, by Phineas Pett at Chatham Dockyard, as a great ship.