HMS Stirling Castle 1703
Marker: recorded wreck position (Age of Sail).
Key facts
| Name | HMS Stirling Castle | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1703 | English Wikipedia lead text (year following a loss verb, parsed) |
| Era | Age of Sail | derived from year |
| Ship type | third-rate | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | Grounding or wreck on rocks | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | Kingdom of England | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | Royal Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Sea / ocean | North Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | England | official dataset |
| Position | 51.2743, 1.5069 | Historic England Protected Wreck Sites, listed latitude/longitude (OGL v3) |
| Protected Wreck | List entry 1000056 | Historic England |
| Designated | 1980-05-07 | Historic England |
| Restricted area | 28.28 ha | Historic England |
| Grid reference | TR 44693 58633 | Historic England |
About the wreck
HMS Stirling Castle was a 70-gun third-rate built at Deptford Dockyard, in 1678/79. She was in active commission for the War of the English Succession, fighting in the Battles of Beachy Head and Barfleur. HMS Stirling Castle underwent a rebuild at Chatham Dockyard in 1699. She was in the Cadiz operation in 1702. The ship was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands off Deal on 27 November 1703. The remains are now a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
She was the first vessel to bear the name Stirling Castle in the English and Royal Navy.
HMS Stirling Castle was awarded the Battle Honour Barfleur 1692.
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.
Local recreational divers found the wreck in 1979 following a movement of the surrounding sand. The wreck lies in 12.1 metres (40 ft) of water near the North Sand Head, Goodwin Knoll. The ship was in a remarkable state of preservation, possibly uncovered for the first time since she sank, and numerous artefacts were recovered in 1979–80. Most are held by Ramsgate Maritime Museum but some were first displayed at Bleak House in Broadstairs while it was still a museum, and then moved to the Deal Maritime Museum. A few artefacts have been recovered since, but the wreck was already being covered by fresh sediment in 1981.
The ship re-emerged from the sand in 1998. Scouring of the sand supporting the stern and port quarter led to their partial collapse in the winter of 1999–2000, and the structure has been further…
Location
- Recorded position: 51.2743, 1.5069 (Historic England Protected Wreck Sites, listed latitude/longitude (OGL v3); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: North Sea
- 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 Stirling Castle (1679) (revision 1370053424), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Wreck”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; 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
- HMS Mary 1703 · 2 km
- HMS Restoration 1703 · 2 km
- HMS Northumberland 1703 · 2 km
- Rooswijk 1740 · 5 km
- Goodwins & Downs 8 7 km
- Unknown Wreck (GAD8; previously known as the 'Goodwins Cannon Site') 7 km
Browse more: UK & Ireland wrecks · wrecks off England · North Sea · Age of Sail