HMS Eagle (1679)

History
Great Britain
Name: HMS Eagle
Builder: Furzer, Portsmouth Dockyard
Launched: 1679
Fate: Wrecked, 22 October 1707
General characteristics as built[1]
Class and type: 70-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1047 bm
Length: 156 ft 6 in (47.7 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 40 ft 6 in (12.3 m)
Depth of hold: 17 ft (5.2 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament: 70 guns of various weights of shot
General characteristics after 1699 rebuild[2]
Class and type: 70-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1099 bm
Length: 156 ft 6 in (47.7 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 40 ft 8 in (12.4 m)
Depth of hold: 17 ft 3 in (5.3 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament: 70 guns of various weights of shot

HMS Eagle was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1679.[1]

She underwent a rebuild at Chatham Dockyard in 1699, retaining her armament of 70 guns. She was captained by James Wishart and served at the Battle of Cadiz and the Battle of Vigo Bay in 1702[3] when there was a raid on Spanish silver.

Under the command of Captain Robert Hancock,[4] Eagle was lost with all hands off the Scilly Isles on 22 October 1707[2][5] 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 (Eagle, Association, Firebrand and Romney) were lost, with nearly 2,000[6] sailors. 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. 1 2 Lavery, Ships of the Line, vol. 1, p. 162.
  2. 1 2 Lavery, Ships of the Line vol. 1, p. 166.
  3. ↑ James Wishart, Europeana, accessed December 2012
  4. ↑ 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Shipwreck of Sir Cloudesley Shovell on the Scilly Islands in 1707, From Original and Contemporary Documents Hitherto Unpublished, Read at a Meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, London, 1 Feb. 1883
  5. ↑ Ships of the Old Navy, Eagle.
  6. ↑ 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

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. Eagle (70) (1679). Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. Retrieved 7 November 2008.


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