Subject: Prints - Ships
Period: 1750 (circa)
Publication:
Color: Black & White
Size:
18 x 12.5 inches
45.7 x 31.8 cm
This graphic scene depicts the sinking of 4 British ships along the Isles of Scilly, approximately 25 miles from Land's End, Cornwall. Sir Cloudesley Shovell, the Admiral of the British Fleet, was returning home from a successful campaign in the Mediterranean with a squadron of 20 ships. After bad weather had prevented navigational sights being taken for several days, Shovell believed the squadron's position was further to the south when the flagship Association ran onto the Gilstone Ledges and quickly sank. The nearby ships of the Eagle, Firebrand, and Romney suffered the same fate. Over 1,300 men were lost, including the Admiral Shovell, and only 26 survived.
References:
Condition: A
A crisp impression, issued folding and now flattened and backed with tissue. There are a few short archivally repaired fold separations in the title below the image and a binding trim at lower left that has been replaced with old paper.