HMS Eagle (1679)

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

Peter Monamy - The venerable HMS Eagle making ready to sail from her offshore anchorage.jpg
HMS Eagle making ready to sail from her offshore anchorage in the Nore, by Peter Monamy
History
Royal Navy EnsignGreat Britain
NameHMS Eagle
Builder, Portsmouth Dockyard
Launched31 January 1679
FateWrecked, 22 October 1707
General characteristics as built[1]
Class and type70-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen1047 bm
Length156 ft 6 in (47.7 m) (gundeck)
Beam40 ft 6 in (12.3 m)
Depth of hold17 ft (5.2 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament70 guns of various weights of shot
General characteristics after 1699 rebuild[2]
Class and type70-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen1099 bm
Length156 ft 6 in (47.7 m) (gundeck)
Beam40 ft 8 in (12.4 m)
Depth of hold17 ft 3 in (5.3 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament70 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 on 31 January 1679.[1][3]

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[4] when there was a raid on Spanish silver.

Sir Cloudesly Shovel in the Association with the Eagle, Rumney and the Firebrand, lost on the rocks of Scilly

Under the command of Captain Robert Hancock,[5] Eagle was lost with all hands off the Scilly Isles on 22 October 1707[2][6] 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[7] 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. ^ a b Lavery, Ships of the Line, vol. 1, p. 162.
  2. ^ a b Lavery, Ships of the Line vol. 1, p. 166.
  3. ^ "British Third Rate ship of the line 'Eagle' (1679)". Threedecks. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  4. ^ James Wishart, Europeana, accessed December 2012
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Ships of the Old Navy, Eagle.
  7. ^ 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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