In April 1655, after months of expensive preparation, the Naseby launched from Woolwich bearing 1,000 tons of burden. The largest warship of the Commonwealth navy, the 80-gun Naseby signalled the significant optimism and ambitions of the Cromwellian Protectorate, and its designs to bring further kingdoms and dominions under the new state’s authority. The ship itself reflected the imperial moment of its creation through impressive carvings and a gilded figurehead which portrayed Oliver Cromwell upright on horseback, ‘trampling six nations under foot, a Scot, Irishman, Dutchman, Frenchman, Spaniard, and English, as was easily made out by their several habits’. The figure of Fame held a laurel over Cromwell’s head, with the inscription ‘God with us’.