HMS Royal George (1756)
HMS Royal George was a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, and she was the largest warship in the world when she was launched on 18 February 1756. She was built at Woolwich Dockyard, after being ordered in 1746. The ship was originally named Royal Anne, but she was renamed Royal George while still under construction and was completed in 1756, just before the start of the Seven Years’ War.
She saw immediate service in the war, including the Rochefort Raid in 1757, and she served as Admiral Hawke’s flagship at the major Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759. After the war she was laid up in 1763, repaired in the late 1760s, and reactivated in 1778 for the American War of Independence. She fought again in important actions, including the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1780 and the relief of Gibraltar.
On 29 August 1782, Royal George was anchored at Spithead near Portsmouth to take on supplies. The ship was being repaired and many crew members and visitors were aboard. She began to heel (tip) to the side, and water rushed in through the gun ports. Despite warnings, the ship’s gun ports were not secured in time, and Royal George rolled over and sank rapidly. About 900 men and officers were lost, with around 255 saved. Among the dead was Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Kempenfelt.
News of the disaster led to a long salvage effort. In 1782 divers recovered some guns, and from 1834 to 1842 further salvaging took place with the then-new diving helmets and explosives to break up the wreck. When the wreck was finally cleared, some bronze pieces were reused for Nelson’s Column in London, and timber from the ship found other uses, including parts of a billiard table at Burghley House.
A court-martial cleared the officers, blaming the sinking on the ship’s decayed timbers and instability during the heel. Some historians blame the acting ship’s carpenter, Hollingbery, for failing to sound an alarm in time, contributing to the loss. The tragedy helped spur the creation of the Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund to aid survivors’ families.
Memorials were later placed in Ryde on the Isle of Wight to remember the loss, and the event was commemorated in verse by the poet William Cowper.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 18:04 (CET).