HMS Romney (1694)

HMS Romney was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Blackwall Yard on 23 October 1694.[1][2]

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Romney.

History
Great Britain
Name: HMS Romney
Builder: Johnson, Blackwall Yard
Launched: 23 October 1694
Fate: Wrecked, 26 October 1707
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 683 bm
Length: 130 ft 0.5 in (39.6 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 34 ft 4 in (10.5 m)
Depth of hold: 13 ft 7 in (4.1 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Armament: 50 guns of various weights of shot

Commanded by Captain William Coney,[3] Romney was wrecked on the Scilly Isles on 26 October 1707[1][4] when a disastrous navigational error sent Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell's fleet through dangerous reefs while on their way from Gibraltar to Portsmouth. Four ships (Romney, Association, Firebrand and Eagle) were lost, with nearly 2,000[5] sailors. Romney hit Bishop Rock and went down with all but one of her crew. The sole survivor was George Lawrence, who had worked as a butcher before joining the crew of Romney as quartermaster.[6] The Scilly naval disaster was one of the greatest maritime disasters in British history. It was largely as a result of this disaster that the Board of the Admiralty instituted a competition for a more precise method to determine longitude.

Notes
  1. Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p164.
  2. "British Fourth Rate ship of the line 'Romney' (1694)". Threedecks. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  3. James Herbert Cooke, The Shipwreck of Sir Cloudesley Shovell on the Scilly Islands in 1707, From Original and Contemporary Documents Hitherto Unpublished, Read at a Meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, London, 1 Feb. 1883
  4. Ships of the Old Navy, Romney.
  5. Sobel, Dava, Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, Fourth Estate Ltd., London 1998, p. 6, ISBN 1-85702-571-7
  6. HMS Association (+1707) on www.wrecksite.eu

References
  • Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.
  • Michael Phillips. Romney (54) (1694). Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. Retrieved 7 November 2008.


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