Built in 1678 as a 90-gun ship, Vanguard was reconstructed under successive establishments and later served as HMS Duke. Her gun count remained broadly stable while length, beam, hold depth, and tonnage increased substantially. The 1710 rebuild added about two feet of gun-deck length and three feet of beam, illustrating how much a rebuild could alter the hull's proportions. Across the later changes, gun-deck length grew from 160 to 174 feet and hold depth from 18 feet 5 inches to 20 feet 6 inches. Her career included Barfleur and La Hogue, a 1690 grounding on Goodwin Sands from which Deal boatmen hauled her free, and later service as Duke at Quiberon Bay. The added volume gave the battery more working room, improved stores and habitability, and created a steadier platform for long deployments. The purpose of enlargement had shifted toward making the assigned guns more effective.
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Vanguard's rebuilds created a better gun platform
Vanguard's repeated transformations increased hull volume and stability without simply adding more guns, making her a practical ship-of-Theseus example.