The first and certainly the most famous is the sinking of the Mary Rose in 1545. This vessel was built at Portsmouth between 1509/10 in what was the earliest dry dock in the world. It became Henry VIII's flagship and saw service in three French wars. In 1536 it was rebuilt and enlarged with a complete lower gun deck making it the first true ocean-going ship of war with the ability to fire a broadside, and was the prototype for all large battleships for the next two centuries.

When it left Portsmouth on 15th July 1545 to face a French invasion fleet off the Isle of Wight it was the pride of the king's navy. But within a mile and a half of the entrance of the harbour the vessel was swamped with water coming through the lower deck gun ports and it rapidly sank in just 40 feet of water. An estimated 700 men lost their lives in the disaster, including its captain, Sir George Carew, and most if not all of the 300 heavily armoured soldiers on board. The site of the wreck was first discovered in 1836 but it was not until October 1982 that the hull of the Mary Rose was dramatically raised and is now a major exhibition at Portsmouth's historic dockyard.

Two hundred and ten years later saw the first of a series of shipping accidents which proved very costly for the Georgian Navy. In April 1755 the 44-gun frigate Assurance was returning from the West Indies with the retiring Governor of Jamaica and his accumulated fortune of some £40,000 in gold coins. The nine year old vessel was under the control of the sailing master and whilst he was negotiating the tricky and treacherous Needles Channel the vessel struck an uncharted rock, within days it was a total wreck. As previously related there was some suggestion that the Islanders were less than helpful in making safe the cargo of wrecked vessels!

A far greater disaster struck in February 1758 when the first Invincible to serve in the Royal Navy was wrecked on Dean Sands, about 1 ½ miles south-east of Horse Sand Fort at the entrance to Spithead. This 74-gun man-of-war, named L'Invincible had been captured from the French in 1747, and was a new type of vessel which had been evolved by the French in 1740. So successful was the Invincible that the Royal Navy adopted it as the standard 74-gun design and these vessels became the backbone of Nelson's navy. All efforts to free the vessel were to no avail and within three days Invincible foundered, but by then all the crew had been saved.

Most 18th century Naval officers were woefully ignorant of the coastal approaches to the various ports, especially Portsmouth and Plymouth. Furthermore the available charts were notoriously inaccurate with many of the shipping perils and dangerous shoals uncharted. It was also freely acknowledged that many of the local pilots were incompetent but despite this it was accepted that Naval officers had no choice but to rely upon them. Some of the Naval shipping masters were not much better; reportedly when Vice Admiral Thomas Cote's squadron returned from the West Indies in 1760 the vessels had to anchor in Sandown Bay because 'his master not being well enough acquainted to bring the ships to Spithead'! In the summer of 1761 the 70-gun Dorsetshire was wrecked at Horse Sands (close to the Mary Rose wreck site). This shipping accident caused the Port Admiral (Vice Admiral Fancis Holborne) at Portsmouth to issue an order to all Naval shipping masters, '...to sound out the channels, which they should do several times by way of refreshing their memories, this being the second great ship they have run ashore lately'. His instruction appears to have gone unheeded because just four months later, in October, the 50-gun vessel Portland came to grief on the Middle Ground just off Ryde.

18th Century engraving of the sinking of the Mary Rose
(National Maritime Museum)

The tragic loss of the Royal George in August 1782 with the terrible loss of life was a body blow for the Navy, then during the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815) over 13,000 seamen died in either shipwreck or accidents, an appalling figure, which was double those killed as a result of enemy action, and during this period no less than 101 Naval vessels were destroyed by accidental causes. For instance during 1799 no less than 19 Naval ships were lost by either wrecking or fire. Of these the greatest loss without doubt was that of the 90-gun Impregnable, which was escorting a convoy of merchant ships back from Lisbon. As the vessel was making its final approach to Portsmouth, it went aground near the entrance to Langstone harbour. Earlier in the year the small captured sloop Les Deux Amis was wrecked just off the Isle of Wight. Fortunately in both instances there was no loss of life.

This was also the case in October 1811 when the 38-gun frigate Pomone was stranded. The frigate was returning from the Mediterranean where its captain - Robert Barrie - had gained conspicous success in several engagements with the French. Barrie was trying to achieve a speedy return to Portsmouth and had decided to use the Needles Channel. As with the Assurance he misjudged his course and the Pomone struck Goose Rock causing considerable damage to the vessel and ensuring that all hopes of refloating it were futile. During the following three days hordes of small boats were employed in clearing the vessel of its guns, stores and other possessions. Amazingly some thoroughbred Iranian horses, which were a gift from the Shah of Persia to King George III, were landed safely.

The loss of HMS Eurydice during a squall. (Illustrated London News)

In March 1878 the foundering of HMS Eurydice off Dunnose Point to the south-east of the Isle of Wight was a Naval disaster of some magnitude. This accident was made even more tragic by the fact that so many of the victims were very young seamen undergoing sail training at the time. Not only was the loss of the Eurydice a traumatic blow to the Admiralty but it left a deep impression on the British public as it cast serious doubts on the might and competence of the Royal Navy. This was especially so as it came less than eight years after another Naval calamity in very similar circumstances. This was the loss of HMS Captain, the Navy's first turreted ironclad, which capsized off Cape Finisterre in September 1870 with the los of 483 officers and men.

The Eurydice was a wooden fully-rigged fast sailing ship, which had been built in 1843 and later converted to a purely sail-training vessel. On 24th March 1878 it was returning from a training cruise in the West Indies with 300 young seamen on board as well as 35 passengers. At about 3.30pm it was sighted by the Bonchurch Coastguard 'sailing hard for Spithead under all plain sail...' Twenty minutes later a heavy squall accompanied by a blinding snow storm came suddenley from the land, catching the vessel completely unawares. In less than ten minutes the squall had passed, the wind had died down but all that could be seen of the Eurydice was 'the masts and top hampers [upper sails and rigging] showing above the water just about 2½ miles off the island'. Apparently the fierce squall had turned the vessel's bows to the east causing it to capsize to the starboard, with the result that water rushed in through the open ports.

A small schooner, the Emma, which had managed to survive the same squall, picked up the only four survivors but unfortunately two seamen later died. The final death toll was 364 officers and men, most of whom were buried in the cemetery at Haslar Hospital in Portsmouth. By the end of March there were plans to salvage the vessel and the hulk was finally brought into Portsmouth harbour. Such was the public interest in the sad accident that a Royal Marine guard was mounted both by day and night. The court martial into the accident took place in August 1878 and it found that the vessel had foundered ...by pressure of the wind upon her sails during a sudden and exceptionally dense snow storm, which overtook her when the approach was partially hidden by the proximity of the ship to high land and no blame can by attached to the captain, the officers and men of Eurydice...' Since then there have been several 'sightings' in the area of a fully-rigged sailing ship moving along at a considerable speed before suddenley disappearing from view. Of such stories are made the legends of the sea!

After the dramatic collision and sinking of HMS Gladiator and the ramming and sinking of HMS Tiger during Fleet exercises off the Isle of Wight in April 1908, all the subsequent Naval accidents in those coastal waters have been mercifully of a less spectacular and tragic nature. One that is deserving of mention is the sad loss of HMS Hazard, the doughty ex-torpedo gun boat which had given such sterling service as the tender to the early submarines. On January 28th 1918 the Hazard was steaming in the eastern Solent when it was rammed by the large casualty-clearing steamer Western Australia. The Hazard was virtually sliced in half and sank very quickly. Although it carried a complement of 120 men, all but three were saved and a fourth one later died from his injuries.

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws