HMS Royal George 1782
Marker: recorded wreck position (Age of Sail).
Key facts
| Name | HMS Royal George | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1782 | English Wikipedia lead text (year following a loss verb, parsed) |
| Era | Age of Sail | derived from year |
| Ship type | first-rate, marine salvage | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | Fire or explosion | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | United Kingdom | Wikidata P137 operator → P17 country |
| Operator | Royal Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Sea / ocean | English Channel | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | England | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 3 km from land |
| Position | 50.7572, -1.1125 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
HMS Royal George was a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was the largest warship in the world at the time of her launch on 18 February 1756. Royal George took ten years to construct at Woolwich Dockyard. The ship saw immediate service during the Seven Years' War, including the Raid on Rochefort in 1757. She was Admiral Sir Edward Hawke's flagship at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759. The ship was laid up following the conclusion of the war in 1763, but was reactivated in 1777 for the American Revolutionary War. She then served as Rear Admiral Robert Digby's flagship at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1780.
Royal George sank on 29 August 1782 while anchored at Spithead off Portsmouth. The ship was intentionally rolled (a 'Parliamentary heel') for maintenance on the hull, but she rolled out of control, took on water through her open gun ports, and sank. More than 800 people died, making it one of the most deadly maritime disasters in British territorial waters.
Several attempts were made to raise the vessel, both for salvage and to clear the hazard to navigation in the Solent.
Location
- Recorded position: 50.7572, -1.1125 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: English Channel
- Nearest coast: England
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article HMS Royal George (1756) (revision 1374119733), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- Mary Rose 1545 · 1 km
- HMS Invincible 1758 · 6 km
- HMS A1 1904 · 14 km
- Unknown Wreck off Thorness Bay 17 km
- HMS Boxer 1918 · 17 km
- Hazardous 18 km
Browse more: UK & Ireland wrecks · wrecks off England · English Channel · Age of Sail