The Royal Anne Galley (1721)
The Royal Anne Galley (1721)
This page contains additional material and images for Chapter 10 of my book A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks.
In my chapter I describe my first-ever dive on the wreck of the Royal Anne Galley in April 2021 off Lizard Point in Cornwall. Looking at the photos of the site here, you will perhaps understand my trepidation! The winter storms had abated, allowing a relatively safe swim across Dead Pool to Man O’War rock, but even so there were big uncertainties about the best time to be on the site because of the tide – I had lots of advice from old-time divers who had been out there, but you can never know for certain until you experience it yourself. In the event, I had timed it right, diving when the water over the site was slack and returning safely on the ebb, but that first dose of apprehension has never completely left me and we go out there when conditions are ideal – and even then we expect to encounter some new eddy or gyre in the water that might force us to return. It is always best to err on the side of caution at a place where so many lives have been lost, with at least thirty shipwrecks known within a kilometre of the Royal Anne Galley.
In the photos below you will see some of the images that Ben Dunstan and I have taken since we began exploring the site in 2021, as well as artefacts that Rob Sherratt and his team raised after Rob discovered the wreck in 1991. Among those artefacts were the largest number of gold items ever found on a wreck off south-west Cornwall, including many beautifully preserved Portuguese and English coins, parts of engraved pocket watches and several of the finest mourning rings known from this period. These artefacts undoubtedly reflect the presence of Lord Belhaven and his retinue, destined for Barbados, but other finds reveal much about the ship itself, her armament and the accoutrements and belongings of her crew, allowing us to see a microcosm of seaborne life at a time soon after the War of the Spanish Succession when the Royal Navy was becoming the undisputed master of the oceans.
The wreck is a protected historic site under the UK Protection of Wrecks Act 1973, and Ben Dunstan and I are licensed by Historic England to survey the wreck. As well work at the site itself, I have completed a project in conjunction with Kevin Camidge to record finds made between 1991 and Rob’s death in a diving accident in 2007, resulting in the catalogue that you can see here. I have also worked in The National Archives to record primary documentation of the ship and her voyages, including the crew lists, the captain’s log for previous voyages, the Admiralty orders for her final voyage – described in my blog here – and letters from the captain to the Admiralty, allowing the rich and varied picture of the ship’s activities to be reconstructed that you can read about in my chapter.
I am very grateful to Lucy Elliott and her family for allowing access to the artefacts excavated by Rob Sherratt, and for their enthusiasm that has led to the finds being recorded and displayed in the Museum of Cornish Life in Helston.
Click on the images to enlarge.
Woodcut from the broadside ‘The Unhappy Voyage. Giving an account of the Royal Anne Galley, Captain Willis Commander …’, quoted in my book. The broadside was published in late 1721 or early 1722, soon after the wrecking, and the scene may have been based on the accounts of the three survivors - it shows, to the left, Man O’War rock, and to the right the cliffs of Lizard Head, with the ship in three stages of destruction in between as it is is pushed further on to the rocks. This is the only known depiction of the Royal Anne Galley, and shows her accurately with a single gundeck and the correct rigging (a partial copy in the British Library is reproduced in the English Broadside Ballad Archive).
The same setting as shown in the woodcut during a storm in February 2022, with Man O’War rock to the left and Lizard Head to the right, and the viewpoint south-west towards the open Atlantic - the route that the Royal Anne Galley would have taken towards Barbados had she not been blown into these rocks. The waves crashing over the rocks are more than 10 metres high (photo: David Gibbins).
Gold dial for a pocket watch, with one of three beautifully engraved maker’s roundels found in the wreck. The maker of this one, David Hubert, was a Huguenot refugee from a family of clockmakers in Rouen, one of thousands of Protestants who had fled France following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Dial diameter 3.8 cm (photo © David Gibbins) .
Lengths of braided gold wire from the wreck, possibly chains for pocket watches. The longest is 12 cm (photo © David Gibbins).
One of the Portuguese gold 4000 reis coins from the wreck, minted in Portugal (in this case) or Brazil. These were known as moidores, from the Portuguese moeda d’ouro, meaning gold coin, and they circulated widely in England at the time of the wreck. They were made from gold that had been discovered in large quantities in Brazil from the late 17th century (photo © David Gibbins).
Three of the Portuguese gold moidores from the wreck (photo © David Gibbins).
Three gold mourning rings from the wreck, each inscribed with the name of the person being commemorated. The one on the right is to Daniel Williams, Doctor of Divinity (you can see the post-nominal letters ‘D.D.’), a prominent non-Conformist theologian whose library survives in London (photo © David Gibbins).
One of the ship’s guns, photographed when I first saw the wreck in April 2021 after the winter storms had swept away the thick growth of kelp that normally covers the site (photo: David Gibbins).
6-pound and 9-pound cannonballs concreted into the seabed at the site, along with lead musket shot (photo: David Gibbins).
Ben Dunstan on the site, showing the difficult conditions for exploration caused by the kelp that grows thickly over the wreck from spring onwards (photo: David Gibbins).
The wreck site has a resident population of grey seals, who are present during many of our dives off the Lizard peninsula (photo: David Gibbins).
A silver knife handle from the wreck bearing the crest and motto of Lord Belhaven - one of the finds that secured the identification of the wreck as the Royal Anne Galley. Four other items of silver cutlery were found bearing the same crest and motto (photo: David Gibbins).
Bookplate of John Hamilton, Lord Belhaven, probably the 3rd Lord, with the same motto as the one on the knife and other cutlery from the Royal Anne Galley. Very few objects or documents associated with the 3rd Lord have survived, probably because he would have been transporting a large part of his personal belongings with him to Barbados and they were lost in the wreck (private collection).
A portrait of John Hamilton, Lord Belhaven, probably the 3rd Lord, thought to be by the Scottish portrait painter William Aikman and known only from this black and white reproduction. Several portraits exist of the 2nd Lord, including one in the National Portrait Gallery (private collection).
The heavy pendulum of a longcase (grandfather) clock, one of a number of items unparalleled in other wrecks and possibly the belongings of Lord Belhaven or another passenger. Other finds included parts of what might be the copper alloy dial face of the same clock. The pendulum is of lead sheathed in a copper alloy outer surface. Diameter 8 cm (photo: David Gibbins).
A heavy copper alloy tap, with lead sheathing for the pipe still attached, from one of the ship’s cooking cauldrons. For more on this artefact, found by us in 2022, see the blog below. Scale 25 cm (photo: David Gibbins).
Copper alloy nautical dividers, missing the iron tips. The inside of one arm bore the letters JD, very possibly John DeGrusty, the ship’s Sailing Master (photo: David Gibbins).
Not a pair of scissors but a candle-snuffer, possibly also the belongings of a passenger rather than shipboard equipment (photo: David Gibbins).
The upturned stems of three heavy wine glasses characteristic of the period, all worn by exposure. These and other wine glasses and decanters found in fragments at the site could have been used by the ship’s officers, but are also consistent with the high status passengers on board (photo: David Gibbins).
As well as fine table glass, the wreck included fragments of wine bottles such as this one in thick green glass (photo: David Gibbins).
The first page of the final Royal Anne Galley crew list, showing the Captain, Francis Willis, and a mixed group of men including the sailmaker, the master’s mate, a trumpeter, the 2nd Lieutenant, a midshipman and ordinary and able seamen. Poignantly, Joseph Weld, the 2nd Lieutenant, is shown alongside his son Lawrence (called by his other name John by his mother in later correspondence), an ordinary seaman (i.e. with only one to two years’ service), whose deaths caused Joseph’s wife Eunice to make an unsuccessful plea to the Admiralty for compensation (ADM 39/2273, The National Archives)
Click here to read a pdf of this article by me on the Royal Anne Galley in the Daily Express on 7 February 2024.
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