HMS Colossus 1798

About the wreck

HMS Colossus was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Gravesend on 4 April 1787 and wrecked on 10 December 1798. During a decade of service she fought in several major fleet engagements of the French Revolutionary Wars and participated in the Battle of Groix as well as the Battle of Cape St Vincent. She was lost while returning to Britain carrying wounded personnel and cargo recovered after Mediterranean operations.

The ship took part in campaigns in the Atlantic and Mediterranean under senior commanders. After later duties that included convoy escort and cruising assignments, she was ordered home, transferring supplies to other vessels before departing with wounded sailors and a cargo that included antiquities collected by diplomat Sir William Hamilton. Severe winter weather forced her to seek shelter near the Isles of Scilly, where she grounded on submerged rocks; all but one of her crew survived.

The wreck lay undisturbed until its rediscovery in the late 20th century, when divers recovered artefacts later conserved and displayed in institutions such as the British Museum.

Diving & visiting

This is a designated Protected Wreck under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. Under the Act, diving on or otherwise interfering with the wreck inside its restricted area requires a licence; see the Historic England list entry for details.

In the closing years of the 1960s, Roland Morris, a marine salver, began diving on the site, searching for the antiquities that Colossus had been transporting. In 1974, he discovered Colossus, as well as fragments from the collection of Sir William Hamilton which Colossus had been transporting. Many of the items found were reconstructed and are now displayed at the British Museum in London.

In 2000, a report from amateur diver Todd Stevens alerted the Receiver of Wreck to the existence of further remains. As a result of this new discovery the Isles of Scilly Museum in Hugh Town was handed a vast collection of artefacts from this wreck for display.

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article HMS Colossus (1787) (revision 1378687941), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Modern discovery and protection”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.

Protected Wreck data © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).

Nearby wrecks

• Bartholomew Ledges Wreck 2 km
• Hollandia 1743 · 3 km
• HMS Firebrand 4 km
• Wheel Wreck 1804 · 5 km
• HMS Association 1707 · 8 km
• Tearing Ledge Wreck 9 km

Browse more: UK & Ireland wrecks · wrecks off England · North Atlantic Ocean · Age of Sail

Further reading

• Historic England list entry 1000078 (official record)
• Wikipedia: HMS Colossus (1787)
• Wikidata Q5631925