HMS ''Invincible'' was a 74-gun

third-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Rating When the rating system was f ...

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 on 9 March 1765 at

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century ...

. ''Invincible'' was built during a period of peace to replace ships worn out in the recently concluded

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

. The ship went on to serve in the

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. May, 1778 under command of Capt. Anthony Parry. Fought at the battles of

Cape St Vincent Cape St. Vincent (, ) is a headland in the municipality of Vila do Bispo, in the Algarve, southern Portugal. It is the southwesternmost point of Portugal and of mainland Europe. History Cape St. Vincent was already sacred ground in Neolithic ...

in 1780, and under the command of Captain Charles Saxton, the Battles of the Chesapeake in 1781 and

St Kitts Saint Kitts, officially Saint Christopher, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis constitute one ...

in 1782. She survived the cull of the Navy during the next period of peace, and was present, under the command of Thomas Pakenham, at the

Glorious First of June The Glorious First of June, also known as the Fourth Battle of Ushant, (known in France as the or ) was fought on 1 June 1794 between the British and French navies during the War of the First Coalition. It was the first and largest fleet a ...

in 1794, where she was badly damaged and lost fourteen men, and, under the command of William Cayley, the

Invasion of Trinidad (1797) On 18 February 1797, a fleet of 18 Kingdom of Great Britain, British warships under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby invaded and took the Island of Trinidad. Within a few days the last Spanish Empire, Spanish Governor, Don José María Chacó ...

, which resulted in the transfer of

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

from the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

Quasi War The Quasi-War was an undeclared war from 1798 to 1800 between the United States and the French First Republic. It was fought almost entirely at sea, primarily in the Caribbean and off the East Coast of the United States, with minor actions in ...

:Sometime in 1800 recaptured American merchantman "Richmond" that had been taken by a French privateer. HMS Invincible 1907 and 1783 by Charles De Lacy

HMS Invincible 1907 and 1783 by Charles De Lacy

Captains

Captains of the ship included: * November 1776: Hyde Parker * February 1778: Anthony Parrey * 1779:

John Laforey Admiral Sir John Laforey, 1st Baronet (1729 – 14 June 1796) was a senior and controversial British naval officer of the 18th century whose extensive career was spent mainly on the North American and West Indian stations. During his career, Lafo ...

* July 1779: Samuel Pitchford Cornish * April 1780: George Falconer * February 1781: Richard Bickerton * May 1781: Charles Saxton * May 1793: Thomas Pakenham * December 1795: William Cayley * February 1801: John Rennie

Shipwreck

On 16 March 1801, she was lost in a

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

off the coast of

Norfolk, England Norfolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and east, Cambridgeshire to the west, a ...

. She had been sailing from Yarmouth under the flag of

Rear-Admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

Thomas Totty in an effort to reach the fleet of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker in the Sound preparing for the upcoming attack on the Danish fleet, with approximately 650 people on board. As the ship passed the Norfolk coast, she was caught in heavy wind and stuck on the Hammond Knoll Rock off

Happisburgh Happisburgh () is a village civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is on the coast, to the east of a north–south road, the B1159 from Bacton on the coast to Stalham. It is a nucleated village. The nearest substantial ...

, where she was pinned for some hours in the afternoon before breaking free but immediately being grounded on a sandbank, where the effect of wind and waves tore down the masts and began to break up the ship. She remained in that position for all of the following day, but late in the evening drifted off the sandbank and sank in deep water.Ships of the Old Navy, ''Invincible''. The admiral and 195 sailors escaped the wreck, either in one of the ship's boats or were picked up by a passing collier and fishing boat, but over 400 of their shipmates drowned in the disaster, most of them once the ship began to sink in deeper water. The compulsory

court martial A court-martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the mili ...

investigating the incident, held on in

Sheerness Sheerness () is a port town and civil parish beside the mouth of the River Medway on the north-west corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 13,249, it is the second largest town on the island after the nearby ...

, absolved the admiral and the captain (posthumously) of culpability in the disaster, posthumously blaming the

harbour pilot A maritime pilot, marine pilot, harbor pilot, port pilot, ship pilot, or simply pilot, is a mariner who has specific knowledge of an often dangerous or congested waterway, such as harbors or river mouths. Maritime pilots know local details s ...

and the ship's master, both of whom had been engaged to steer the ship through the

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

s and

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body ...

s of the dangerous region, and should have known the location of Hammond Knoll, especially since it was daytime and in sight of land. The remains of many of her crew were located by chance in a mass grave in Happisburgh churchyard during the digging of a new drainage channel. A memorial stone was erected in 1998 to their memory by the Ship's Company of the

aircraft carrier , and by the Happisburgh

parochial church council A parochial church council (PCC) is the executive committee of a Church of England parish and consists of clergy and churchwardens of the parish, together with representatives of the laity. It has its origins in the vestry committee, which looke ...

Citations

References

* Grocott, Terence, ''Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras'', Caxton Editions, Great Britain: 2002. . * Michael Phillips
''Invincible'' (74) (1765)
Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. Retrieved 1 September 2008. * Lavery, Brian (1983) ''The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650–1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. .

External links

Threedecks database of warships
{{DEFAULTSORT:Invincible (1765) Military history of Norfolk Shipwrecks in the North Sea 1800s disasters in the United Kingdom 1801 disasters Ships of the line of the Royal Navy Shipwrecks of England Maritime incidents in 1801 1801 in England Ramillies-class ships of the line 1765 ships Ships built in England