On 6 June 1793, in the Bay of Biscay, she captured Vanneau, a tiny vessel with an armament of just six guns, which the Royal Navy took into service.[2] The same year, Colossus was part of a large fleet of 51 warships of numerous types, including a Spanish squadron, but commanded overall by Vice Admiral Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood.[citation needed]
The Fleet arrived off Toulon on 26 August 1793, with Lord Hood in the warship HMSVictory. The objective was to keep the French Fleet in check. In Toulon's port were 58 French warships, and Lord Hood was determined not to allow such a potent and dangerous fleet to be taken over by French revolutionary forces. The Bourbons, the Royalists of France, had managed to retain control of Toulon, a vital Mediterranean port. Upon the arrival of the British Fleet, the Bourbons duly surrendered the town and ships to Hood.
Sailors and Royal Marines began to land at Toulon from the ships of the Royal Navy Fleet, with the objective of taking possession of the key forts, which they succeeded in doing. The French Republican forces quickly mobilised, and began the siege of Toulon on 7 September. By 15 December, the British and Spanish withdrew, taking with them 15,000 Royalists, as well as destroying the dockyards and a large number of French warships. The Royal Navy lost 10 ships after the French captured the heights overlooking the harbour.
In 1795, Colossus was once again part of a large fleet action, the Battle of Groix. A fleet of 25 ships commanded by Admiral Lord Bridport on his flagship, Royal George, fought a French fleet of 23 warships under the command of Rear-Admiral Villaret-Joyeuse. The battle was immense and chaotic, and raged across a vast area, yet it came to an indecisive end, when Bridport ordered his Fleet to cease fighting at 7.15am, just four hours after the initial fighting had started. This decision allowed nine important French warships to escape. Colossus received damage, suffering three killed and thirty wounded. In total, British losses were 31 killed and 113 wounded. French losses are not known; it is estimated over 670 French sailors were killed or wounded, during skirmishes that resulted in the capture of three French warships.
Though Colossus was involved in much bitter fighting, her Scots captain, John Monkton, ordered his kilt-wearing piper to proceed to the maintop mast staysail netting and play the pipes throughout the battle, no doubt to the bemusement of the French sailors who witnessed it.
Battle of Cape St. Vincent
In February 1797, Colossus (now commanded by Captain George Murray) was involved in yet another large-scale clash of fleets in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent. She was part of a 21-ship strong fleet (including 7 smaller craft) under the command of Admiral John Jervis in his flagship HMS Victory, against a Spanish Fleet of 27 ships commanded by Lieutenant-General Don José de Córdoba y Ramos.[3]Colossus sustained serious damage, her sails being virtually shot away. It looked inevitable that she would be raked by Spanish warships, until Orion headed for Colossus and covered her.
The battle was a major victory for the Royal Navy. Despite being outnumbered, it captured four Spanish ships and crippled seven, including the largest warship afloat at that time - the Santísima Trinidad. Britain lost approximately 300 killed or wounded; the Spanish lost 1,092 killed or wounded, and 2,300 taken prisoner.
Other action
As the fleet repaired at Naples Colossus was immediately sent "on a cruise off Malta". She then went to Gibraltar before returning to the now repaired fleet in Naples. In the summer, William Bolton (later Captain) was promoted to Lieutenant on the Colossus,[4] and the ship on the obverse of the 1797 medal featuring William Bolton may represent Colossus. Colossus was not cannibalized; Captain Murray did, however, hand over to Nelson three of his guns and one bower anchor. This was done as Colossus had been ordered home to England, whereas the Vanguard was staying within the war zone. Loaded with Greek vases and wounded men from the battle of the Nile, Colossus set off for home. She stopped at Algiers and at Lisbon on the way. At Lisbon she joined a larger convoy that was "bound for Ireland and other northern ports". The convoy dispersed in the English Channel as planned.[5]
Amidst the bad winter weather Colossus sighted the Isles of Scilly first and came to anchor in St Mary's Roads on 7 December.[6] For three days she intended to ride out the storm, only for it to increase. On the night of 10 December an anchor cable parted and the ship ran aground on a submerged ledge of rock off Samson Island. Only one life was lost, that of Quartermaster Richard King who drowned when he fell overboard while trying to sound the lead.[6] Boats were immediately put out from the island, and all of the other crew were transported to safety by the morning. On 11 December the ship settled on her side, the starboard beam ends touching the waves. Attempts to reboard her were thwarted by continued high seas.
On 15 December Colossus' mainmast and bowsprit broke away and it became clear she could no longer be refloated. A naval brig, Fearless, was able to put alongside the shipwrecked vessel on 29 December and bring away a quantity of stores and the body of Admiral Molyneux Shuldam which had been transported aboard Colossus for reburial in England.[6][lower-alpha 1] No further salvage proved possible and the vessel sank entirely in early January 1799.
Modern discovery and protection
In the closing years of the 1960s, Roland Morris, a marine salver,[8] began diving on the site, searching for the antiquities that Colossus had been transporting. In 1974, he discovered Colossus, as well as fragments from the collection of Sir William Hamilton which Colossus had been transporting. Many of the items found were reconstructed and are now displayed at the British Museum in London.
In 2000, a report from amateur diver Todd Stevens alerted the Receiver of Wreck to the existence of further remains. As a result of this new discovery the Isles of Scilly Museum in Hugh Town was handed a vast collection of artefacts from this wreck for display. These new remains turned out to be the stern of the wreck, which held a large carving from the stern port quarter gallery. This carving was claimed to have been discovered by local diver Carmen Stevens but not reported until the following year when the wreck site was designated on 4 July 2001 under the Protection of Wrecks Act as a result of the find when reported meaning that diving or other interference within 300 metres of the site was not permitted without a licence.
In August 2001 the Archaeological Diving Unit of the University of St Andrews obtained a survey licence and carried out a pre-disturbance survey of the site. The Colossus carving was recovered from the site in 2002 (as shown in a Time Team TV special in October 2002) and after conservation by the Mary Rose Trust, was returned to Scilly in 2010 to be placed on display in the Valhalla figurehead collection on Tresco Island.[9] Further extensive licensed surveys were carried out by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Archaeological Society from 2003 to 2005.
Exploration of the wreck is ongoing year on year by Survey Licence Holder Todd Stevens and IMAG (The Islands Maritime Archaeological Group) who have produced an overall site plan of the whole wreck site. The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Maritime Archaeology Society (CISMAS) has been routinely inspecting and recording the site since 2001.[10] The CISMAS projects are funded and endorsed by Historic England (at the time called English Heritage). In May 2012 CISMAS embarked on an excavation of a portion of the stern of the wreck, focusing on recording finds related to the gun deck and on initiating a long-term reburial trial.[11]
New wreck material was found in the vicinity of the stern in 2014, prompting further excavation work in 2015.[12] This raised new questions about the wrecking process which was investigated in 2017, leading to a new wrecking theory.[13]
In 2018 Historic England published the investigation and conservation of artefacts from HMS Colossus, thought to be a small concentration of personal items (50 buttons, a bone brush/ shoe horn and a textile fragment) recovered under a surface recovery license by the 2014 Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Maritime Archaeological Society (CISMAS) team. The objects were analysed and stabilised by the Historic England conservation lab, at Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth.[14]
HMS Theseus was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Cloudesley Shovell was an English naval officer. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Solebay and then at the Battle of Texel during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. As a captain he fought at the Battle of Bantry Bay during the Williamite War in Ireland.
HMS Albion was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built by Adam Hayes at Deptford Dockyard and launched on 16 May 1763, having been adapted from a design of the old 90-gun ship Neptune which had been built in 1730. She was the first ship to be called HMS Albion. She was the first of a series of ships built to the same lines, which became known as the Albion-class ship of the line.
Association was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1697. She served with distinction at the capture of Gibraltar, and was lost in 1707 by grounding on the Isles of Scilly in the greatest maritime disaster of the age. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
HMS Stirling Castle was a 70-gun third-rate built at Deptford Dockyard, in 1678/79. She was in active commission for the War of the English Succession, fighting in the Battles of Beachy Head and Barfleur. HMS Stirling Castle underwent a rebuild at Chatham Dockyard in 1699. She was in the Cadiz operation in 1702. The ship was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands off Deal on 27 November 1703. The remains are now a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
Vice-Admiral Sir James Nicoll Morris KCB was a Royal Navy officer who served through the American Revolutionary War, French Revolutionary Wars, and Napoleonic Wars. He joined the Royal Navy in 1772 and subsequently fought as a junior officer in the Leeward Islands in the battles of St Lucia, Grenada, and the Saintes. He was promoted to commander in 1790, going to the Leeward Islands where he commanded HMS Flirt, and then he similarly had HMS Pluto on the Newfoundland Station. Morris was promoted to post-captain in 1793 and given command of HMS Boston, in which he became a successful prizetaker around Cape Finisterre. In 1798 he transferred to command HMS Lively but in April that ship was wrecked off Cadiz. His next command was HMS Phaeton in the following year. In Phaeton Morris fought in the Mediterranean, assisting the Austrian battles against French forces in Italy.
HMS Cambridge was an 80-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, designed by Sir Joseph Allin and built at Deptford Dockyard by Adam Hayes to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment as amended in 1750, and launched on 21 October 1755.
HMS Charles was a 96-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Christopher Pett at Deptford Dockyard until his death in March 1668, then completed by Jonas Shish after being launched in the same month. Her name was formally Charles the Second, but she was known simply as Charles, particularly after 1673 when the contemporary Royal Charles was launched.
Coronation was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, built at Portsmouth Dockyard as part of the '30 great ships programme' of 1677, and launched in 1685. She was lost in a storm off Rame Head, Cornwall on 3 September 1691 and is designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
HMS Eagle was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Portsmouth Dockyard during 1677/79. When completed she was placed in Ordinary for 10 years. She was in active commission during the War of the English Succession partaking in the Battle of Barfleur. She was rebuilt in 1699 at Chatham. She again played an active role in the early part of the War of Spanish Succession participating in the Capture of Gibraltar, and the Battle of Velez Malaga. She was wrecked in the Isles of Scilly in October 1707.
Rear-Admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds was a long serving and widely respected officer of the British Royal Navy who served in four separate major wars in a 52-year career. During this time he saw only one major battle, although was engaged in one of the most noted frigate actions of the French Revolutionary Wars, the destruction of the Droits de l'Homme, in which his own frigate was driven ashore and wrecked. Reynolds died in 1811 during a great storm in late December, which scattered his convoy and wrecked three ships of the line including his own flagship HMS St George. Over 2,000 British sailors, including Reynolds, were drowned.
Firebrand was a Royal Navy fireship built at Limehouse in 1694, the first Royal Naval vessel to bear the name.
Site Recorder is a geographical information system (GIS) and information management system (IMS) designed for use in maritime, freshwater and intertidal archaeology. Site Recorder can be used on maritime and intertidal archaeology projects for real-time data collection, decision support, publication, archiving and data migration. The program is designed for use by archaeologists rather than GIS experts.
The Scilly naval disaster of 1707 was the loss of four warships of a Royal Navy fleet off the Isles of Scilly in severe weather on 22 October 1707. Between 1,400 and 2,000 sailors lost their lives aboard the wrecked vessels, making the incident one of the worst maritime disasters in British naval history. The disaster has been attributed to a combination of factors, including the navigators' inability to accurately calculate their positions, errors in the available charts and pilot books, and inadequate compasses.
Richard James Vincent Larn, OBE is a retired Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy, a businessman and maritime history writer who is widely regarded as one of Britain's leading historic shipwreck experts.
Innes McCartney is a British nautical archaeologist and historian. He is a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University in the UK.
The Raid on Genoa was a minor naval engagement fought in the harbour of the Italian city of Genoa during the first year of the French Revolutionary Wars. French Republican forces in the Mediterranean, under pressure from Austrian and Spanish armies, Royalist uprisings and British blockade had suffered the loss of their principal naval base and the fleet stationed there when British forces under Lord Hood seized Toulon at the invitation of the city's Royalist faction. The survivors of the French fleet were scattered across the Mediterranean, several sheltering in neutral Italian harbours, including the frigates Modeste at Genoa and Impérieuse at Leghorn.
References
Grocott, Terence (1997). Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Eras. Chatham Publishing. ISBN1861760302.
Lavery, Brian (2003). The Ship of the Line - Volume One: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN0851772528.
Further reading
Stevens, Todd, Wreck of the Colossus: the Find of a Lifetime (January 2007) ISBN0-9553430-1-1
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