HMS Eagle, wrecked 1707 off Western Rocks, Isles of Scilly A...

Estimate

£1,000 - £2,000

HMS Eagle, wrecked 1707 off Western Rocks, Isles of Scilly A late 17th century bronze bell Cast in bell bronze, verdigris pattination to interior and exterior, obvious damage, 22cm tall, x 27cm in diameter. Peter McBride and Richard Larn salvaged the bell from HMS Eagle in 1969. HMS Eagle was a third-rate ship of the line carrying 70 guns. She was ordered in April 1677 to be built at Portsmouth Dockyard under the guidance of Master Shipwright Daniel Furzer and was launched on 31 January 1679. Eagle was repaired and reconditioned at Chatham in 1699-1700, then served with distinction during the War of the Spanish Succession, mostly in the Mediterranean, and was part of Sir George Rooke's fleet which famously took Gibraltar in 1704. On 22nd October 1707 a British fleet commanded by Sir Cloudesley Shovell, whilst returning from a mission during the War of the Spanish Succession, foundered in bad weather on rocks off the Isles of Scilly. Four ships were lost, Eagle, Firebrand, Romney and Shovell’s flagship HMS Association. Altogether, as many as 2000 British seamen were lost, making it among the greatest maritime disasters in British naval history. Commanded by Captain Robert Hancock, HMS Eagle 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 (800 hands). There were no survivors. Sinking a few hundred metres away from Bishop Rock, her wreck lies at a depth of 130 feet. The lost of Shovell's fleet and the catastrophic loss of life were due poor weather, but mainly the inability to accuratly determine a ship's exact longitude. The British Government introduced the Longitude Act of 1714 as a direct result of the disaster. The act offered a reward, 'the Longitude Prize' of £20,000 to whoever could produce a solution that was "practicable and useful at sea". John Harrison, a Yorkshire carpenter-turned-clockmaker, took 25 years and four attempts, but in 1759 he invented a marine chronometer, the H4, that allowed a ship to calculate its longitude by comparing the difference in local time at sea with the time in Greenwich.