No one believed the size of the ship until the wreck was surveyed in 1933. She came to a rather sad end, catching fire and burning out on the Hamble in 1439. There is no evidence she went to sea again, but nevertheless made a considerable impression on those who saw her. Grace Dieu sailed on one voyage from Southampton in 1420 under the command of William Payne and was then laid up with the other large royal ships at Burlesdon on the River Hamble. The forecastle of Grace Dieu was fifty-two feet high and would have eclipsed the Genoese vessels, but by 1420 Henry had achieved undisputed mastery of the Channel.
They were built to combat the formidable Genoese carracks, allied to the French, which contested control of the English Channel. Grace Dieu was the last of Henry V’s large ships including Trinity Royal, Jesus and Holy Ghost of the Tower.
In fact when she was completed, the role she was intended to perform no longer existed. On account of her undistinguished career, the size and design of Grace Dieu have attracted considerable criticism. She held the distinction of being the last ship to be built for an English king for fifty years. In addition lumps of irons were hurled onto the ships below. Her main armament consisted of archers who would fire down on enemy vessels from the imposing forecastle. Launched in 1418, she was more than two hundred feet long and had an estimated displacement of 2,750 tons. The greatest of all medieval ships, Henry V’s the Grace Dieu was a remarkable vessel of a similar size to HMS Victory, although with her towering castles she looked very different. I never saw so large and so beautiful a construction’ Luca di Masa degli Albizzi, Florentine Captain of the Galleys, 1430.
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