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The ''Santísima Trinidad'' (officially named ''Santísima Trinidad'' by Royal Order on 12 March 1768, nicknamed ''La Real'' and sometimes confused with the Manila galleon ''Santísima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora del Buen Fin'') was a Spanish first-rate ship of the line of 112 guns, which was increased in 1795–96 to 130 guns by closing in the spar deck between the quarterdeck and forecastle, and around 1802 to 140 guns, thus creating what was in effect a continuous fourth gundeck although the extra guns added were actually relatively small. She was the heaviest-armed ship in the world when rebuilt, and bore the most guns of any ship of the line outfitted in the Age of Sail. ==Design & construction== She was built at Havana, Cuba, to a design by Irish naval architect Matthew Mullan (domiciled in Spain under the name Mateo Mullán) and launched in 1769 as a 112-gun three-decker 〔Gervasio de Artinano y de Galdacano, ''La Arquitectura Naval Espanola (en Madera)'' (Madrid 1920), p.365〕 (some sources say 116 or even 120 guns). She was considerably larger than her British contemporary ''Victory'' and somewhat bigger than the French ''Bretagne''. There is no complete plan of the ship in existence, but there are of the 112-gun ship from 1765, from which the original dimensions of the ship may be found. Here, the units of length are the Spanish Burgos foot (27.86 cm) and the SI metre (100 cm), respectively: length = 213 (59.53); keel = 182 (50.82); beam = 57 (16.09); draught = 28 (8.06).〔For exact figures, and those in the General characteristics frame, see: José Cayuela Fernandez, ''Trafalgar, hombres y naves entre dos épocas'': Ariel (2004)〕 In 1795, her forecastle was joined to her quarterdeck to create a fourth deck containing a battery of eight pounder guns, giving her a total of 140 guns. Her armament seems to have been quickly reduced to 130 from 136 guns, but she still carried more guns than any other ship of her time. As the only ship with four gun decks, she was reputed to be the largest warship in the world, for which she was nicknamed ''El Escorial de los mares'' by the Spanish, until surpassed in sheer size by the new type French 120-gun ships such as the ''Océan'' (1790) and ''Orient'' (1791). The weight of the additional guns, so high above her waterline, made her sail poorly, leading to her nickname, ''El Ponderoso''.〔''El Ponderoso'', ''the ponderous'' is a pun on ''el poderoso'', ''the mighty''.〕 It was even suggested by some naval officers that she should be restricted to defending the Bay of Cádiz. ''Santísima Trinidad'' remains famous as one of the few four-decker ships of the line ever built. The U.S. Navy constructed the four-deck, 136-gun and the 120-gun French - ''Valmy'' (both with similar flush deck arrangement), and the Royal Navy planned—but did not actually build—the proper 170-gun four-decker ''Duke of Kent''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Spanish ship Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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