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This the first H(B)[1]MS Prince was a first rate, three deck, 100/90-gun ship-of-the-line.
The Prince, launched at Chatham in 1670, was one of the finest English 1st rate ships of the seventeenth century. She was a successor to the famous Royal Sovereign and was designed by Phineas Pett the younger who had worked with his father on the construction of the Royal Sovereign. She was a large ship,. Launched 1670, 167ft long, 45ft 6in wide with a burden of 1,463 tons and a keel length of 131 feet (39.93m). She carried 100-gun when at war in home waters or 90-guns; ranging from the 42 pdr. (19.05kg) cannon on the lower gun deck to the 3 pdrs in peace or war overseas and carrying a wartime crew of 780 men.
The service career of the Prince began in 1672 when she carried the flag of the Duke of York, then Lord High Admiral of England and later King James II at the battle of Solebay, in the Third Dutch war. The battle ended in an English victory but in the action the Prince was so badly damaged that the Duke temporarily shifted his flag. The Captain of the Fleet, Sir John Cox, was killed on board in the course of the engagement. The Prince survived until 1692 when she was broken up and as much of her timber as could be salvaged was used in the building of the Royal William.
[1] In formal documents like peace treaties, the English version describes the treaty as being between, for example, “His Britannic Majesty” and “His Catholic Majesty.” Likewise, a captain reporting a capture would write about having encountered “His Most Christian Majesty’s Ship Incroyable.” There were so many kings in Europe that just “His Majesty” would have been highly ambiguous. It would be proper, and more specific, to refer to British warships has HBMS, and I think that if hailed at sea, a British warship at this time would have so identified herself:
“Ahoy, what ship is that?”
“His Britannic Majesty’s Ship Warrior.”
British naval historians and their American toadies have gotten arrogant and lazy and left out the “B.”
