''Association'' was a 90-gun

second-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a second-rate was a ship of the line which by the start of the 18th century mounted 90 to 98 guns on three gun decks; earlier 17th-century second rates had fewer guns ...

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactics in the Age of Sail, naval tactic known as the line of battl ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, launched at

Portsmouth Dockyard His Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth (HMNB Portsmouth) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Devonport). Portsmouth Naval Base is part of the city of Portsmouth; it is loc ...

in 1697.Lavery, Ships of the Line, vol. 1, p. 164.Ships of the Old Navy, ''Association''. She served with distinction at the capture of Gibraltar, and was lost in 1707 by grounding on the Isles of Scilly in the greatest maritime disaster of the age. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

Service

''Association'' survived the

Great Storm of 1703 The Great storm of 1703 was a destructive extratropical cyclone that struck central and southern England on 26 November 1703. High winds caused 2,000 chimney stacks to collapse in London and damaged the New Forest, which lost 4,000 oaks. Ships wer ...

, during which she was at anchor off

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-o ...

. Her rigging was cut away to avoid foundering on the "Galloper" sandbar, and she was blown to

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

in Sweden before she could make her way back to England. ''Association'' served as the flagship of Admiral Sir

Cloudesley Shovell Admiral of the Fleet Sir Cloudesley Shovell ( – 22/23 October 1707) was an Royal Navy officer and politician. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Solebay and Battle of Texel during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. As a captain he fo ...

in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

during the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish E ...

. Her engagements included the capture of

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

on 21 July 1704, and the Battle of Toulon in summer 1707.

Sinking

In October 1707, ''Association'', commanded by Captain Edmund Loades and with Admiral Shovell on board, was returning from the Mediterranean after the Toulon campaign. The 21 ships in the squadron entered the mouth of the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

on the night of 22 October 1707 . At 8 pm, ''Association'' struck the Outer Gilstone Rock
see image
off the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly ( ; ) are a small archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, St Agnes, is over farther south than the most southerly point of the Great Britain, British mainla ...

, and was wrecked with the loss of her entire crew of about 800 men. As a result of navigational errors, the ships were not where they were reckoned to be. ''Association'' was seen by those on board HMS ''St George'' to go down in three or four minutes' time. Among the dead were Captain Loades and Admiral Shovell, his stepsons Sir John Narborough and James Narborough (sons of Shovell's wife from her marriage to Rear Admiral Sir John Narbrough) as well as Henry Trelawney, second son of the Bishop of Winchester. Captain Loades was the son of Rear Admiral Narbrough's sister.James Herbert Cooke, The Shipwreck of Sir Cloudesley Shovell on the Scilly Islands in 1707, From Original and Contemporary Documents Hitherto Unpublished, Read at a Meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, London, Feb. 1, 1883
/ref> Three other ships ( HMS ''Eagle'', HMS ''Romney'' and HMS ''Firebrand'') were also lost, bringing the death toll to nearly 2,000. The Scilly naval disaster was one of the greatest

maritime Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Princ ...

disasters in British history The following list of disasters in Great Britain and Ireland is a list of major disasters (excluding acts of war) which relate to the United Kingdom, Ireland or the Isle of Man, or to the states that preceded them, or that involved their citizens ...

. It was largely as a result of this disaster that the

Board of the Admiralty Board or Boards may refer to: Flat surface * Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat ** Plank (wood) ** Cutting board ** Sounding board, of a musical instrument * Cardboard (paper product) * Paperboard * Fiberboard ** Hardboard, a ty ...

instituted a

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indi ...

for a more precise method to determine

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...

. There is a memorial depicting the sinking of the ''Association'' in the church at the Narboroughs' home of Knowlton near Dover.

Discovery of the wreck

In June 1967, the

minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

HMS ''Puttenham'', equipped with twelve divers under the command of Engineer-Lieutenant Roy Graham, sailed to the Isles of Scilly and dropped anchor off Gilstone Ledge, just to the south-east of

Bishop Rock The Bishop Rock () is a skerry off the Great Britain, British coast in the northern Atlantic Ocean known for its lighthouse. It is in the westernmost part of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornwall, Cornish ...

Farrell, Nigel, ''An Island Parish. A Summer on Scilly'', Headline Publishing Group, London 2008, p. 205-207, and close to the Western Rocks. The year before, Graham and other specialists from the

Naval Air Command Sub Aqua Club The Naval Air Command Sub Aqua Club (NACSAC) was an organization within the Royal Navy that oversaw Recreational diving, sports Technical diving, and technical diving training activities for British Naval Aviation, naval aviation and British Fleet ...

had dived in this area on a first attempt to find the ''Association''. He recalled some years later: "The weather was so bad, all we achieved was the sight of a blur of seaweed, seals and white water as we were swept through the Gilstone Reef and fortunately out the other side."Interview with Engineer-Lieutenant Roy Graham in December 2005.
/ref>HMS Association (+1707) on www.wrecksite.eu
/ref> On their second attempt in summer 1967, using the minesweeper and supported by the Royal Navy Auxiliary Service, Graham and his men finally managed to locate the remains of ''Association'' on the Gilstone Ledge. Parts of the wreck are in 30 feet, while others can be found at between 90 and 120 feet as the sea floor falls away from the reef.''Wreck of the fleet and treasures of the deep'', The Islander 3, Autumn/Winter 2007.
/ref> The divers first discovered a cannon, and on the third dive, silver and gold coins were spotted underneath that cannon. The

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

initially suppressed news of the discovery for fear of attracting

treasure hunter Treasure hunting is the physical search for treasure. One of the most popular types of modern day treasure hunters are historic shipwreck salvors. These underwater treasure salvors try to find sunken shipwrecks and retrieve artifacts with both ...

s, but word was soon out and excited huge national interest. More than 2,000 coins and other artefacts were finally recovered from the wreck site and auctioned by Sotheby's in July 1969. The rediscovery of the ''Association'' and the finding of so many historical artefacts in her wreck also led to more government legislation, notably the

Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 The Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 (c. 33) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provides protection for designated shipwrecks. Section 1 of the act provides for wrecks to be designated because of historical, archaeological o ...

, passed in an attempt to preserve British historic wreck sites as part of the maritime heritage. In 2017 Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Maritime Archaeology Society (CISMAS) undertook a survey of the site of the ''Association''. A 3D site plan was produced for

along with photos from the dive showing the difficult diving conditions.

In fiction

Robert Goddard Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945) was an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which was successfully lau ...

's novel ''Name to a Face'',(2007) a central plot element is the recovery of a ring worn by Admiral Shovell at the time of ''Association''s sinking.

Notes

References

* David Hepper – ''British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859'' (1994) *Lavery, Brian (1983) ''The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650–1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. . *Michael Phillips
''Association'' (90) (1697)
Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. Retrieved 1 February 2008.

External links

*
HMS ''Association'' from ''Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia''

"''Association''" National Heritage List for England
{{DEFAULTSORT:Association (1697) Ships of the line of the Royal Navy Shipwrecks of the Isles of Scilly Cornish shipwrecks Maritime incidents in 1707 1707 in Great Britain Royal Navy ship names 1690s ships Archaeology of shipwrecks Ships built in Portsmouth