HMS ''Romney'' was a 50-gun fourth rate

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 tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...

of the Royal Navy, launched at Blackwall Yard on 23 October 1694. Commanded by Captain William Coney,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Shipwreck of Sir Cloudesley Shovell on the Scilly Islands in 1707, From Original and Contemporary Documents Hitherto Unpublished, Read at a Meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, London, 1 Feb. 1883
/ref> ''Romney'' was wrecked on the Scilly Isles on 26 October 1707Ships of the Old Navy, ''Romney''. when a disastrous navigational error sent

Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

Sir Cloudesley Shovell's fleet through dangerous reefs while on their way from Gibraltar to Portsmouth. Four ships (''Romney'', ''Association'', ''Firebrand'' and ''Eagle'') were lost, with nearly 2,000 sailors. ''Romney'' hit

Bishop Rock The Bishop Rock ( kw, Men Epskop) is a skerry off the 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 Cornish peninsu ...

and went down with all but one of her crew. The sole survivor was George Lawrence, who had worked as a butcher before joining the crew of ''Romney'' as quartermaster.HMS Association (+1707) on www.wrecksite.eu
/ref> The Scilly naval disaster was one of the greatest maritime disasters in British history. It was largely as a result of this disaster that the Board of the Admiralty instituted a competition for a more precise method to determine longitude.

Notes

References

*Lavery, Brian (2003) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850''. Conway Maritime Press. . *Michael Phillips
''Romney'' (54) (1694)
Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. Retrieved 7 November 2008. Maritime incidents in 1707 Ships of the line of the Royal Navy Shipwrecks of the Isles of Scilly 1690s ships Archaeology of shipwrecks Ships built by the Blackwall Yard {{UK-line-ship-stub