1721 Cornwall shipwreck to be further studied

The Royal Anne Galley was a fifth-rate galley frigate with an armament of 42 guns was wrecked on the Stags rocks on 10 November 1721 while on voyage to the Barbados. There were only three survivors out of some 200 passengers and crew. The Royal Navy built only six such galleys, and the Royal Anne was described as the finest ever constructed at her launch.

The site of the wreck was discovered by local diver Rob Sherratt in 1991. Since then over 400 artefacts, including iron cannon, cannon balls and coins, have been recovered from the site as well as pieces of cutlery bearing Lord Belhaven’s crest, a bridled nag’s head, and motto ‘Ride through’. In 1993 the wreck was designated under the 1973 Protection of Historic Shipwrecks Act.

The first Marine Environmental Assessment (MEA) of a protected wreck was commissioned in 2005. The project will also involve a biological study by Falmouth-based marine biologist Miles Hoskin, bathymetric survey, sediment and seawater sample analysis and placing objects (bricks, small ceramic balls and oak blocks) on the seabed to aid in dispersal studies. It is planned that this will be undertaken in late July or early August this year with the help of a diving team from SeaStar Survey of Southampton.

You can also dive the wreck. For more information about this, click the link under;