Charles the Second’s _Dreadnought_ was our second man-of-war of the name. Originally the _Torrington_, one of Cromwell’s frigates, and named, after the Puritan usage, to commemorate a Roundhead victory over the hapless Cavaliers, Restoration Year saw the ship renamed _Dreadnought_, under which style she rendered the State good service for many a long year to come. In that time the _Dreadnought_ fought, always with credit, in no fewer than seven fleet battles. She was with the Duke of York when he beat Opdam off Lowestoft in 1665; with Monk, Duke of Albemarle, and Prince Rupert in the “Four Days’ Fight” of 1666; at the defeat of De Ruyter in the St. James’s Day Fight of the same year. Solebay, in the Third Dutch War, was another of our second _Dreadnought’s_ notable days, and also Prince Rupert’s three drawn battles with De Ruyter off the Banks of Flanders in 1673. Worn out with thirty-six years’ service (reckoning from the day that the _Torrington_ first took the water), the _Dreadnought_ had set forth to meet the famous French corsair, Jean Bart, in the North Sea, when, one stormy October night of 1690, she foundered off the South Foreland. Happily, the boats of her squadron had time to rescue those on board. Our fourth _Dreadnought_, William the Third’s ship, fought the French at Barfleur and La Hogue, and after that did good service down to the Peace of Ryswick as a Channel cruiser and in charge of convoys. She served all through “Queen Anne’s War,” by chance only missing Benbow’s last fight. Later, the _Dreadnought_ was with the elder Byng—Lord Torrington—at the battle off Cape Passaro, in the Straits of Messina, in 1718, where one, if not two, Spaniards lowered their colours to her. The _Dreadnought_ on that occasion formed one of Captain Walton’s detached squadron, whose exploit history has kept on record, thanks to Captain Walton’s dispatch to the admiral, as set forth in the popular version of it: “Sir, we have taken all the ships on the coast, the number as per margin.” Of that dispatch more will be said elsewhere.[1] The _Dreadnought_ ended her days in George the Second’s reign, at the close of the war sometimes spoken of as “The War of Jenkins’ Ear.” Two _Dreadnought_ officers, Sir Edward Spragge, who captained our second _Dreadnought_ in the “Four Days’ Fight,” and Sir Charles Wager, a very famous admiral in his day, First Lieutenant of our third _Dreadnought_ in the year before La Hogue, have monuments in Westminster Abbey.