THE ILL-FATED ROYAL GEORGE, FOUNDERED AT SPITHEAD IN 1780 pe...

Hammer

£450

THE ILL-FATED ROYAL GEORGE, FOUNDERED AT SPITHEAD IN 1780

pen, ink and watercolour, inscribed on reverse The Royal George of 100 Guns, as taken with a Camera Obscura when a Guard Ship in Hamoaze 1780, was afterwards overset whilst being careen'd (sic) for the purpose of repairing the Watering Pipe in the 9th August 1782. The Brave Admiral Kempenfelt with more that 1000 persons, seamen and others met a Watery Grave. After remaining under water nearly 60 years tho' several ineffectual attempts had been made to raise her, Colonel Parsley RE proposed to blow her up with Gunpowder & the first large cylinder charged with 2,400lbs. was exploded on the 3rd August 1839 fully realising the opinion of the Scientific Projector. This frame is made from the recovered wood of the ship. "Toll for the brave' brave Kempenfelt is gone. His last sea fight is o'er his work of glory done", this final quotation from William Cowper's epic poem "On the loss of the Royal George," written in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, in an original frame made of wood recovered from the Royal George -- 7¼ x 9in. (18.5 x 23cm.)

For the only other recorded example (although half the size of the one offered here) seen in commerce in more than fifty years, see Bonhams & Brooks Marine Sale, 11th January 2001, lot 70; For a detailed account of the disastrous sinking of the Royal George in 1782, see notes to the model of the vessel sold in these rooms, 27th April 2021, lot 175.