The Scilly naval disaster of 1707 was the loss of four warships of a
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 ...
fleet 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 ...
in severe weather on 22 October 1707. Between 1,400 and 2,000 sailors lost their lives aboard the wrecked vessels, making the incident one of the worst maritime disasters in British naval history.
[The earliest reports of the disaster appeared in the '' Daily Courant'', and were rather brief. The account for 1 November 1707 read: "an Account, that Sir Cloudsly Shovel with about 20 Sail of Men of War coming from the Streights, having made an Observation the 21st, lay the 22d from 12 to about 6 in the Afternoon; but the Weather being very hazy and rainy and Night coming on dark, the Wind being S.S.W, they Stearing E by N, supposing they had the Channel open, were some of them upon the Rocks to the Westward of Scilly before they were aware, about 8 a Clock at Night. Of the Association not a Man was sav’d ... The Captain and 24 Men of the Firebrand Fire-Shop were saved, as were also all the Crew of the Phoenix. 'Tis said the Rumney and Eagle, with their Crews, were lost with the Association." Cited in: ] The disaster has been attributed to a combination of factors, including the
navigator
A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's prim ...
s' inability to accurately calculate their
position
Position often refers to:
* Position (geometry), the spatial location (rather than orientation) of an entity
* Position, a job or occupation
Position may also refer to:
Games and recreation
* Position (poker), location relative to the dealer
* ...
s, errors in the
available charts and pilot books, and inadequate compasses.
Background
From 29 July to 21 August 1707, 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 ...
, a combined British,
Austrian and
Dutch force under the command of
Prince Eugene of Savoy
Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy-Carignano (18 October 1663 – 21 April 1736), better known as Prince Eugene, was a distinguished Generalfeldmarschall, field marshal in the Army of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty durin ...
besieged the French port of
Toulon
Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department.
The Commune of Toulon h ...
. Great Britain dispatched a fleet to provide naval support, led by the
Commander-in-Chief of the British Fleets,
Sir Cloudesley Shovell. The ships sailed to the Mediterranean, attacked Toulon and managed to inflict damage on the French fleet caught in the siege. However, the overall campaign was unsuccessful, and the British fleet was ordered to return home, setting sail from
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 ...
for
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...
in late September. The force under Shovell's command comprised fifteen
ships 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 involved the two column ...
(,
''Royal Anne'', ,
''St George'', , , , , , , , HMS ''Rye'', , , ) as well as four
fireship
A fire ship or fireship is a large wooden vessel set on fire to be used against enemy ships during a ramming attack or similar maneuver. Fireships were used to great effect against wooden ships throughout naval military history up until the adv ...
s (, HMS ''Griffin'', , HMS ''Vulcan''), the
sloop HMS ''Weazel'' and the
yacht
A yacht () is a sail- or marine propulsion, motor-propelled watercraft made for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a ...
HMS ''Isabella''.
Loss of the ships

Shovell's fleet of twenty-one ships left Gibraltar on 29 September, with serving as his own flagship,
HMS ''Royal Anne'' as flagship of
Vice-Admiral of the Blue
Vice-Admiral of the Blue was a senior rank of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, immediately outranked by the rank Vice-Admiral of the White (see order of precedence below). Royal Navy officers currently holding the ranks of commodore, rear a ...
Sir George Byng and as flagship of
Rear-Admiral of the Blue
Rear-Admiral of the Blue was a senior rank of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, immediately outranked by the rank Rear-Admiral of the White. Royal Navy officers currently holding the ranks of commodore, rear admiral, vice admiral and admira ...
Sir John Norris.
The passage was marked by extremely bad weather and constant
squall
A squall is a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed lasting minutes, as opposed to a wind gust, which lasts for only seconds. They are usually associated with active weather, such as rain showers, thunderstorms, or heavy snow. Squalls refer to the ...
s and westerly
gale
A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface wind moving at a speed between . s. As the fleet sailed out on the
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
, passing the
Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay ( ) is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Point Penmarc'h to the Spanish border, and along the northern coast of Spain, extending westward ...
on their way to England, the weather worsened, and on most days it was impossible to take the observations needed to determine their latitude. On 21 October they came into the soundings, with depths of 93–130 fathoms (about 170–240 metres), indicating that they were coming onto the edge of the continental shelf.
At noon that day the weather cleared and good readings of latitude were obtained, at 48° 50–57' N. Taken together these observations suggested a location about 200 miles west-southwest of Scilly.
[ This paper combines data from original records, including data from the surviving ships' logs, some Admiralty sources not cited elsewhere, and more recent commentaries] This was the last observation of latitude, and the rest of the voyage relied on
dead reckoning
In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating the current position of a moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix, and incorporating estimates of speed, heading (or direction or course), and elapsed time. T ...
.
Due to the known difficulties of long-distance navigation, it was common practice at the time to send out a frigate to look for a returning fleet, in order to help guide the fleet safely to port. HMS ''Tartar'' was sent out from Plymouth on 21 October, but returned on the 24th without encountering Shovell's fleet.
[
Early on the 21st, the wind had backed from north to southwest, giving the fleet a favourable wind, sailing east-northeast. At 11 am, three ships were detached to head to Falmouth on convoy duty. At 4 pm on 22 October, the fleet hove-to and again took soundings. The wind continued to be favourable, though visibility was poor and night was approaching. Presumably believing that the channel was open, Shovell gave the order to sail on, at about 6 pm.][ The fleet headed east-by-north until at about 8 PM the flagship and several other vessels found themselves among the rocks to the southwest of St Agnes Island in the Isles of Scilly.][ Four ships were lost when they struck the rocks:
*, 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 ...
commanded by Captain Edmund Loades, struck the Outer Gilstone Rock off Scilly's Western Rocks at 8 pm and sank, drowning her entire crew of about 800 men and Admiral Shovell himself. Following behind ''Association'' was ''St George'', whose crew saw the flagship go down in three or four minutes. ''St George'' also struck rocks and suffered damage but eventually managed to get off, as did , which ran ashore between Tresco Tresco may refer to:
* Tresco, Elizabeth Bay, a historic residence in New South Wales, Australia
* Tresco, Isles of Scilly, an island off Cornwall, England, United Kingdom
* Tresco, Victoria, a town in Victoria, Australia
* a nickname referring t ...
and St Martin's but could be kept seaworthy.
*, a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line commanded by Captain Robert Hancock, hit the Crim Rocks and was lost with all hands on Tearing Ledge amongst the Western Rocks. It is estimated that HMS ''Eagle'' had at least as many crew as HMS ''Association'';[ there were no survivors. Sinking a few hundred metres away from Bishop Rock, her wreck lies at a depth of 130 feet.]
*, a 50-gun fourth-rate
In 1603 all English warships with a complement of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers, a six-tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided ...
ship of the line commanded by Captain William Coney, hit Bishop Rock and went down with all save one of her 290 crew being lost. The sole survivor from the three largest ships was George Lawrence, who had worked as a butcher before joining the crew of ''Romney'' as quartermaster.
*, a fireship
A fire ship or fireship is a large wooden vessel set on fire to be used against enemy ships during a ramming attack or similar maneuver. Fireships were used to great effect against wooden ships throughout naval military history up until the adv ...
commanded by Captain Francis Percy, struck the Outer Gilstone Rock like ''Association'', but unlike the flagship she was lifted off by a wave. Percy managed to steer his badly damaged ship along the southern side of the Western Rocks between St Agnes and Annet, but she foundered in Smith Sound, sinking close to Menglow Rock and losing 28 of her crew of 40.[ (It is also reported the survivors numbered 23).][
Of the other ships in the fleet,][ HMS ''Royal Anne'' was saved from foundering by her crew quickly setting her topsails, and weathering the rocks when within a ship's length of them.][
]
The exact number of officers, sailors and marines who were killed in the sinking of the four ships is unknown. Statements vary from 1,400 to over 2,000, making it one of the greatest maritime disasters in British history. For days afterwards, bodies continued to wash onto the shores of the isles along with the wreckage of the warships and personal effects. Many dead sailors from the wrecks were buried on the island of St Agnes.
Admiral Shovell's body, along with those of his two Narborough stepsons and his flag-captain, Edmund Loades, washed up on Porthellick Cove on St Mary's the following day, almost from where ''Association'' was wrecked. A small memorial was later erected at this site. The circumstances under which the admiral's remains were found gave rise to stories (see below). Shovell was temporarily buried on the beach on St Mary's. By order of Queen Anne, his body was later exhumed, embalmed and taken to London, where he was interred in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...
.[ His large marble monument in the south choir aisle was sculpted by ]Grinling Gibbons
Grinling Gibbons (4 April 1648 – 3 August 1721) was an Anglo-Dutch sculptor and wood carver known for his work in England, including Windsor Castle, the Royal Hospital Chelsea and Hampton Court Palace, St Paul's Cathedral and other London church ...
. There is a memorial depicting the sinking of ''Association'' in the church at the Narboroughs' home of Knowlton near Dover.
Legacy
Legends of the disaster
A number of myths and legends have arisen concerning the disaster. A story claiming that Shovell summoned the sailing masters to the flagship on 22 October for a council regarding the fleet's position seems to have first appeared in a paper by James Herbert Cooke presented at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries in 1883, based on an account by Edmund Herbert, who was on the Isles of Scilly in 1709. Although such a council having occurred is not in itself improbable, it would have been a significant operation, involving the launching of the ships' boats in heavy weather, and it would be expected to have been recorded in the ships' logs. The surviving logs do indeed record previous such events, but no mention is made of a council on the 22nd.
Another myth associated with the disaster alleges that a common sailor on the flagship tried to warn Shovell that the fleet was off course but the Admiral had him hanged at the yardarm
A yard is a spar on a mast from which sails are set. It may be constructed of timber or steel or from more modern materials such as aluminium or carbon fibre. Although some types of fore and aft rigs have yards, the term is usually used to de ...
for inciting mutiny. The story first appeared in the Scilly Isles in 1780, with the common sailor being a Scilly native who recognised the waters as being close to home but was punished for warning the Admiral. It was claimed that grass will never grow on the grave where Shovell was first buried at Porthellick Cove because of his tyrannical act against an islander. The myth was embellished in the 19th century when the punishment became instant execution and the sailor's knowledge of the fleet's position was attributed to superior navigational skills instead of local knowledge. While it is possible that a sailor may have debated the vessel's location and feared for its fate, such debates were common upon entering the English Channel, as noted by Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys ( ; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most r ...
in 1684. Naval historians have repeatedly discredited the story, noting the lack of any evidence in contemporary documents, its fanciful stock conventions and dubious origins.[ However, the myth was revived in 1997 when author ]Dava Sobel
Dava Sobel (born June 15, 1947) is an American writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. Her books include ''Longitude'', about English clockmaker John Harrison; '' Galileo's Daughter'', about Galileo's daughter Maria Celeste; and ''T ...
presented it as an unqualified truth in her book ''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 ...
''.
Another story that is often told is that Shovell was alive, at least barely, when he reached the shore of Scilly at Porthellick Cove, but was murdered by a woman for the sake of his priceless emerald
Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium.Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr., and Kammerling, Robert C. (1991). ''Gemology'', John Wiley & Sons, New York ...
ring, which had been given to him by a close friend, Captain James Lord Dursley. At that time, the Scillies had a wild and lawless reputation.[ According to a letter written in 1709 by Edmund Herbert, who was sent to Scilly by Shovell's family to help locate and recover items belonging to the admiral, Sir Cloudesley's body was first found by two women "stript of his shirt" and "his ring was also lost off his hand, which however left ye impression on his finger." Shovell's widow, Elizabeth, had offered a large reward for the recovery of any family property.] It is claimed that the murder only came to light some thirty years later when the woman, on her deathbed, produced the stolen ring and confessed to a clergyman that she had killed the admiral. The clergyman supposedly sent it back to the 3rd Earl of Berkeley, although several historians doubt the murder legend as there is no record of the ring's return and the story stems from a romantic and unverifiable "deathbed confession".[
]
Maritime navigation
There was much discussion of the difficulties facing mariners approaching the channel in the years both before and after the Scilly disaster. In 1700, Edmond Halley
Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; – ) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720.
From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, Hal ...
published an "advertisement" (warning) concerning the dangers of ships mistakenly passing north of Scilly, rather than to the south, as intended, which he described as "not without great danger, and the loss of many of them". He identified two factors responsible for the mistakes: the failure to take account of magnetic variation, then about 7° west, and errors in the pilot books, which placed the islands up to 15 miles north of their true position. He recommended a course not more northerly than 49° 40' to stay safely to the south of both the Scillies and the Lizard
Lizard is the common name used for all Squamata, squamate reptiles other than snakes (and to a lesser extent amphisbaenians), encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most Island#Oceanic isla ...
.
Another possible factor, suspected by some mariners at the time but not documented for nearly another 100 years, was the existence of a north-setting current, Rennell's Current, that could run at 15 miles in 24 hours, quite sufficient to put a ship into danger. The current builds up with strong westerly or southwesterly winds, as was the case in October 1707.[
Writing about the Scilly disaster in 1720, ]Josiah Burchett
Josiah Burchett (c.1665 – 2 October 1746), of Hampstead, Middlesex, was a British naval administrator and Whig politician, who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1705 and 1741. He was Secretary of the Admiralty in Englan ...
wrote: "I cannot but have a lively idea of the danger fleets are exposed to upon entering the British Channel, when coming from foreign parts, but more especially when their officers have not the advantage of knowing their latitude by a good observation". Thus both these writers identified the importance of errors in latitude.
Longitude was also important for a ship approaching the channel. Before astronomical methods of determining longitude became available, navigators relied upon soundings of the ocean depth with lead and line. The continental shelf
A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...
extends to about the 100-fathom (180-m) line and then drops very sharply to thousands of metres. A ship coming "into the soundings", where the depth could be measured with a 100–150-fathom sounding line thus knew its approximate longitude.
The information available to the fleet has been analysed using data from the numerous log books of the surviving ships.[ It has sometimes been assumed that the bad weather on the voyage entirely prevented the determination of latitude, but the weather in fact cleared enough for at least a few observations to be made. Thus the positions calculated were a mixture of dead reckoning, soundings, and observations of latitude. The approximate course of the fleet is shown on the chart, with positions shown for the last two days from the logs of ships that survived the disaster. The chart also shows Halley's recommended northern limit. The fleet was clearly too far north to continue heading east-by-north, which again suggests an error in latitude. W.E. May notes that while the latitudes recorded in the log-books were more accurate than the longitudes, there was still a spread of over 40 nautical miles in the recorded latitudes.
HMS ''Orford'', and Lieutenant Lochard's log, survived the disaster. HMS ''Association'' and her logs did not, so there is no way of knowing exactly what information Shovell had available to him. The account of a council of the ships' masters that discussed their position is almost certainly one of the myths of the disaster, as suggested above. But if Shovell headed east-by-north towards the Channel at nighttime, he presumably believed he was safely to the south of the Scillies. The captain of ''Torbay'' wrote in his journal: "We were much to ye Northward of what was expected, and likewise more to the Eastward". May considers the error to have been one of latitude, but due more to the inaccuracy of the charts than to the ships' observations.
While Dava Sobel's] assertion that the disaster was mainly due to an error in longitude cannot be sustained, the disastrous wrecking of a Royal Navy fleet in home waters nonetheless caused great consternation to the nation, and made plainly evident the inadequacy of existing maritime navigational techniques. The Royal Navy conducted a court-martial of the officers of ''Firebrand'' (a ''pro forma'' investigation required after the sinking or wrecking of any Royal Navy ship) and all were acquitted, but no officers survived from the other lost ships, so no other courts-martial took place. The Navy also conducted a survey of compasses from the surviving ships and of those at Chatham and Portsmouth dockyards, following comments from Sir William Jumper, captain of ''Lenox'', that errors in the compasses had caused the navigational errors. The survey showed what a poor state many of the compasses were in; at Portsmouth, for example, only four of the 112 wooden-cased compasses from nine of the returning vessels were found to be serviceable.
Clearly, improvements were urgently needed before ships could be expected to safely find their way through dangerous waters. As transoceanic travel grew in significance, so did the importance of reliable navigation. While no contemporary discussions are known that appear to relate the disaster specifically to the longitude problem, the scale of the disaster may have contributed to concern about the problem in general, which ultimately led to the Longitude Act in 1714. The Act established the Board of Longitude and offered large financial rewards to anyone who could devise a method for accurately determining longitude at sea. After many years, the consequence of the Act was that accurate marine chronometer
A marine chronometer is a precision timepiece that is carried on a ship and employed in the determination of the ship's position by celestial navigation. It is used to determine longitude by comparing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and the time at t ...
s were produced and the lunar distance method was developed, both of which were quickly adopted worldwide for maritime navigation.
Discovery of the wrecks
The ships of Sir Cloudesley Shovell's fleet lay undisturbed on the seabed for over 250 years, despite several salvage attempts in pursuit of the flagship's cargo of valuable coins, spoils of war from several battles, weapons, and personal effects. In June 1967, the Royal Navy 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 ...
, manned 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 southeast of Bishop Rock 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 ''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." 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 Admiral Shovell's flagship on the Gilstone Ledge. Parts of the wreck are in while others can be found at between and as the sea floor falls away from the reef. 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. As the Isles of Scilly are traditionally administered as part of the Duchy of Cornwall
A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a country, territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or queen in Western European tradition.
There once existed an important difference between "sovereign ...
, the Duke of Cornwall
Duke of Cornwall () is a title in the Peerage of England, traditionally held by the eldest son of the reigning Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarch, previously the English monarch. The Duchy of Cornwall was the first duchy created i ...
also has right of wreck on all ships wrecked on the Scilly archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...
. More than 2,000 coins and other artefacts were finally recovered from the wreck site and auctioned by Sotheby's
Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
in July 1969. A further sale at Sotheby's in January 1970, by order of the Isles of Scilly Wrecks Receiver, made £10,175. Among the goods sold was Shovell's chamber pot
A chamber pot is a portable toilet, meant for nocturnal use in the bedroom. It was common in many cultures before the advent of indoor plumbing and flushing toilets.
Names and etymology
"Chamber" is an older term for bedroom. The chamber pot ...
for £270. A battered dining plate, which had been discovered during a dive in 1968, brought £2,100. The rediscovery of ''Association'' by naval divers 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.
The wreck of ''Firebrand'' was discovered in 1982, and several items were recovered, including guns and anchors, a wooden nocturne (for determining the time at night), a bell and carved cherubs.
Today photographs of the original diving expedition are on display at the Old Wesleyan Chapel in St. Mary's, of the team leader Lt Graham and a naval doctor examining human bones from the wreck of ''Association'', alongside the ship's bell of ''Firebrand'' with "1692" engraved on it, and many more artefacts. In 2007, the three-hundredth anniversary of the disaster and its consequences were commemorated on the Isles of Scilly with a series of special events, organised by the Council of the Isles of Scilly
The Council of the Isles of Scilly is a ''sui generis'' local government authority covering the Isles of Scilly off the west coast of Cornwall, England. It is currently made up of 16 councillors, all independents. The council was created in 18 ...
in partnership with the local AONB office, English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
, the Isles of Scilly Museum in Hugh Town
Hugh Town ( or ) is the largest settlement on the Isles of Scilly and its administrative centre. The town is situated on the island of St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, St Mary's, the largest and most populous island in the archipelago, and is located ...
, and Natural England
Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...
.Council of the Scilly Isles website.
/ref>
In popular culture
The disaster is featured at the start of the 2000 television drama ''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 ...
'', which is based on Sobel's book of the same name.
See also
* List of disasters in Great Britain and Ireland by death toll
* List of shipwrecks of the Isles of Scilly
* Honda Point disaster
Notes
References
Further reading
* Roland Morris, ''Island Treasure: The Search for Sir Cloudesley Shovell's Flagship 'Association' '', Hutchinson 1969 ()
* Peter McBride, Richard Larn, ''Admiral Shovell's Treasure and Shipwreck in the Isles of Scilly'', Shipwreck & Marine 1999 ()
* Richard Larn (ed.), ''Poor England has Lost so Many Men'', Council of the Isles of Scilly, 2007 ()
* Mark Nicholls, ''Norfolk Maritime Heroes and Legends'', Cromer, Norfolk: Poppyland 2008, pp. 25–30 ()
External links
Scilly History
– HMS ''Association''
El Desastre Naval de las Islas Sorlingas de 1707
(Spanish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scilly Naval Disaster Of 1707
Maritime incidents in 1707
Maritime incidents in England
1707 in England
Archaeology of shipwrecks
History of the Isles of Scilly
Scilly, Isles of
Naval meteorology
Shipwrecks of the Isles of Scilly
Transport in the Isles of Scilly
Cornish shipwrecks
18th century in Cornwall
18th-century history of the Royal Navy