Warwick was built in the 1730s to the 1719 Establishment with twenty-four-pounders on her gun deck and progressively lighter weapons above. The French captured her in 1756, Alexander Hood recaptured her in 1761, and the Royal Navy then broke her up. Canterbury was much older, having been launched in 1693 and rebuilt to the same establishment in 1722 before serving until 1770. Their contrasting histories show that common ratings and armament plans did not produce identical careers: one ship passed through enemy hands, while the other remained useful for roughly seventy-seven years.
Notable Point · 34:15-36:10
Warwick and Canterbury across changing wars
The sixty-gun Warwick and Canterbury show both standardized British armament and the varied later fortunes of long-serving wooden warships.