Sites : Eagle
Location - Tearing
Ledge, Isles of Scilly, UK
Coordinates : 49 52.2628N 006 26.5928W (WGS84) Depth
: 30-40m
Conditions : Exposed to Atlantic swell, strong
tides, good visibility
Type : Warship, 3rd Rate, 70 guns Built :
1679 Lost : 1707
Designated under the UK
Protection of Wrecks Act (1973)
National Monuments Record No.: 1082123
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The Bishop Rock Lighthouse
(Sarala Sharma) |
Located within 300m of
the Bishop Rock Lighthouse in the Western Rocks of the Isles of
Scilly, the remains of the Eagle lie in a 30m deep gully
swept by strong tides. The boulder seabed is strewn with guns
and anchors over a distance of 80m, but between the boulders and in
deeper water lie remains of the ship.
The site is exposed to swell from the South which restricts the time
that can be spent on site, add to this the problems of tide, depth
and the wide area to cover this is not an easy place to work.
On the night of 22nd
October 1707, four warships were lost and 1,400 men lost their
lives, and one of them was the famous Admiral Sir Clowdisley Shovell.
That night the Association, Romney and Firebrand were also lost with
the Eagle and all within the treacherous Western Rocks. The
loss of these ships spurred the British Government to find a
solution to the problem of fixing longitude at sea, a problem
eventually solved by Harrison's chronometer.
The first survey of the
Tearing Ledge site was carried out by Richard Larn and NACSAC in
1969. Between 1971 and 1976 a more detailed survey was
completed by a team led by Peter McBride. In 2005 a survey
license was granted to David McBride with the intention that the
site be re-surveyed and investigated further. The site has
been disturbed by divers and many of the larger objects have been
moved in the course of salvage operations.
Download
the Site file to open in the free Site Reader program 
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Anchor
A in its new position (David McBride) |
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| The recent survey
work has involved re-labelling all guns and anchors with the names used in
the original 1976 survey. Video and photographs of the site have
been added to the archive and a it is intended that the positions of all
the objects are checked with 3D trilateration using Site Recorder 4.
The plan below shows the positions of the control points to be installed
along the gully walls that surround the site. |
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Bibliography
- Admiral Shovell's Treasure, McBride P. & Larn R. 1999, Troutbeck
Press, ISBN 0-9523971-3-7 pp98-101 [ABE]
- Historic Shipwrecks, Fenwick V. & Gale A., 1998, Tempus Publishing
Ltd., ISBN 07524 1416 X, pp126-127 [ABE]
- British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1994,
Hepper D., Jean Boudriot Publications, ISBN 0-948864-30-3, p27
[ABE]
- The Sailing Navy List, 1993, Lyon D., Conway Maritime
Press, ISBN 0-85177-617-5, p20 [ABE]
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