Carteret was later Captain of HMS ANTELOPE in which he took part in the 1637 Expedition to destroy the pirate ships of Sallee on the African Atlantic coast after they had captured countless ships, stolen in the region of £96,000 in cargo and held more than a thousand people captive. The ANTELOPE returned with 339 of the captives on board.
The ANTELOPE was originally built as a galleass of the English Tudor navy, launched in 1546. She was rebuilt three times, in 1558 (becoming a galleon), 1581 and 1618. She thus served in various forms from the time of King Henry VIII to the English Civil War. She is mostly remembered for being a part of the fleet that defeated the Spanish Armada.
ANTELOPE is described in a navy list of 5 January 1548 as a galleass of 300 tons built in 1546 with a crew of 200 and armed with 4 brass and 40 iron guns. As depicted in the Anthony Roll, she was a flush-decked vessel carrying a battery of guns on the lower deck. She was rebuilt in 1558 as a galleon of 341 tons, acquiring a forecastle and a half-deck aft. In 1581 she was again rebuilt as a race-built galleon of 400 tons. A more detailed description is given in a navy list of 1603 where she is said to have measured 350 tons and had a crew of 160 (consisting of 114 sailors, 16 gunners and 30 soldiers). At this time, Antelope carried 26 heavy and 12 light guns.
By the time she participated in the campaign against the Spanish Armada in 1588, she had a crew of 170 and mounted 30 guns. ANTELOPE was captained by Sir Henry Palmer and belonged to the squadron of Lord Henry Seymore in which she took part in the Battle of Gravelines and the chase of the Spanish fleet to the north. In 1597 ANTELOPE, then commanded by Captain Sir Thomas Vavasour, participated in the unsuccessful expedition against the Azores led by the Earl of Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh.
She was again rebuilt in 1618 and classified as a middling ship of 450 tons and 30 guns, comparing 4 culverins, 14 demi-culverins, 10 sakers and 2 minions. October 1620 commissioned again under command of Sir Henry Palmer. The only remarkable action in her later career is her participation in Sir Robert Mansells disappointing expedition against Algiers in 1620/1621.In the beginning of October 1624 ANTELOPE - then under the command of Sir Thomas Button - was hit by a storm and driven onto the Goodwin Sands after her anchor cables where cut by a merchant ship. Though she lost all her masts and her rudder she got off into the Downs and was repaired by Phineas Pett whose son John had been on board. He left a description of this incident in his Autobiography.
During the Second English Civil War she belonged to the ships that where brought over to the royalist side by vice admiral William Batten in June 1648 and carried into Hellevoetsluis (Netherlands).When Prince Rupert was made commander of the badly equipped royalist fleet, he sold ANTELOPE 's brass guns to fit out some other ships. In the spring of 1649 ANTELOPE was ready for sea, but her weak crew was surprised by a raid of seamen from the parliamentarian ship HAPPY ENTRANCE and DRAGON who took the ship on 26 July 1649 without a fight and immediately destroyed her.
Jersey 2009 61p sg?, scott?
Source Jersey Stamp Bulletin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Antelope_(1546) British Warships in the age of sail 1603-1714 by Rif Winfield.