According to the
royal inventory of 1547, the
Antelope had a crew of 170 with 30 gunners. Her armaments included; a brass
demi-cannon; 3 brass
culverins; 4 iron
demi-culverins; 3
sakers; 4 port pieces; 2 slings; 2 demi-slings; 2 quarter-slings; 11
iron single bases; 8
hagbuts and 4 hail-shot pieces. Handarms included 50 yew bows, 86
bills, and 72
Moorish pikes. The
Antelope was described in a navy list of 5 January 1548 as a "galleass" of 300 tons built in 1546 with a crew of 200 and armed with 4
brass and 40
iron guns. As depicted in the
Anthony Roll, she was a flush-decked vessel carrying a battery of guns on the lower deck; she carried a four-masted rig and her lower deck was pierced for nine pairs of gunports. In 1549 she was re-classed from a galleass to a 'ship'. In
action against Scotland, the
Antelope was one of 12 ships dispersed by a storm off
Flamborough Head on Wednesday 27 December 1559. Captain Southwick brought her back to join
William Winter's fleet in the
Firth of Forth. She was rebuilt in 1558 as a galleon of 341 tons, acquiring a forecastle and a half-deck aft. In 1581 she was again rebuilt as a
race-built galleon of 400 tons. A more detailed description is given in a navy list of 1603 where she is said to have measured 350 tons and had a crew of 160 (consisting of 114 sailors, 16 gunners and 30 soldiers). At this time,
Antelope carried 26 heavy and 12 light guns. She participated in the campaign against the
Spanish Armada in 1588, when she had a crew of 170 and mounted 30 guns. The
Antelope was captained by
Sir Henry Palmer and belonged to the squadron of
Lord Henry Seymour in which she took part in the
Battle of Gravelines and the chase of the Spanish fleet to the north. In 1597
Antelope, then commanded by Captain Sir
Thomas Vavasour, participated in the unsuccessful expedition against the
Azores led by the
Earl of Essex and Sir
Walter Raleigh. She was again rebuilt in 1618 and classified as a
middling ship of 450 tons and 34 guns. The only remarkable action in her later career is her participation in Sir
Robert Mansells disappointing expedition against
Algiers in 1620/1621.
Francis Stuart sailed in the
St George and the
Antelope to Spain in 1623, bringing a parcel of jewels for
Buckingham and
Prince Charles. In the beginning of October 1624
Antelope - then under the command of Sir Thomas Button - was hit by a storm and driven onto the
Goodwin Sands after her anchor cables were cut by a merchant ship. Though she lost all her masts and her rudder she got off into the
Downs and was repaired by
Phineas Pett whose son John had been on board. He left a description of this incident in his
Autobiography. During the
Second English Civil War she was among the ships that were brought over to the
royalist side by vice admiral
William Batten in June 1648 and carried into
Hellevoetsluis in the
Netherlands. When
Prince Rupert was made commander of the badly equipped royalist fleet, he sold
Antelope's brass guns to fit out some other ships. In the spring of 1649
Antelope was ready for sea, but her weak crew was surprised by a raid of seamen from the parliamentarian ship
Happy Entrance who took the ship without a fight and immediately destroyed her. ==Notes==