HMS Royal James was a 100-gun first-rate

First-rate

First rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for its largest ships of the line. While the size and establishment of guns and men changed over the 250 years that the rating system held sway, from the early years of the eighteenth century the first rates comprised those ships mounting 100...

 ship of the line

Ship of the line

A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, designed by Sir Anthony Deane and built by his successor as Master Shipwright at Portsmouth Dockyard, Daniel Furzer, and launched in 1675. She was renamed HMS Victory on 7 March 1691 as the old second rate Victory of 1666 had been condemned by survey and taken to pieces in 1691. Recommissioned in January 1691 under Captain Edward Stanley, as the flagship of Admiral Sir John Ashby she participated in the Battle of Barfleur

Battle of Barfleur

This article deals in detail with the action on 19 May 1692. For an overview of the battle, its background and aftermath, see Battles of Barfleur and La Hogue...

 on 19 May 1692 – 24 May 1692.

Victory was rebuilt at Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...

in 1694—1695. Briefly renamed Royal George in 1714 after the Hanoverians came to the throne, but resumed the name Victory in 1715. She was partly destroyed by an accidental fire in February 1721 and was broken up, though remained on the navy list until she was ostensibly rebuilt as the new .