HMS Association, Isles of Scilly 1707 Two wooden pulley shea...

Estimate

£50 - £100

HMS Association, Isles of Scilly 1707 Two wooden pulley sheaves Of which there would have been several hundred in use in the rigging. Made of a very hard wood, either greenstone or lignum vitae. Diameter of largest 25cm. On the 22nd of October 1707, a fleet of four Royal Navy Ships, HMS Association, HMS Eagle, HMS Romney and HMS Firebrand were wrecked off the Western Rocks, Isles of Scilly, Cornwall. Over 1600 men were lost, including the man in charge of all four ships, Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell. 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.