HMS Association (1697)
HMS Association was the flagship of Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell which sank off the Scilly Isles in 1707 in one of the worst maritime disasters in British history.
Association was a 96 gun Second-rate ship of the line, built at Portsmouth dockyard in 1699. She served as the flagship of Cloudesley Shovell in the Mediterranean during the War of the Spanish Succession, in engagements including the capture of Gibraltar on 21 July 1704.
In October 1707, Association, commanded by Captain Edmund Loades, was returning from the Mediterranean with Shovell on board. The 12 ships in the squadron entered the mouth of the English Channel on the night of 22 October 1707 (Old Style). As a result of navigational errors, the ships were on the wrong course and struck the Bishop and Clerks Rocks off the Scilly Isles. Association was wrecked with the loss of her entire crew of about 800 men, along with three other ships.
HMS Association had previously survived the Great Storm of 1703. She was at anchor in the Thames Estuary and after cutting rigging to avoid foundering on the "Galloper" sandbar, was blown to Gothenburg in Sweden before way could be made back to England.
Further reading
- Simon Harris - Sir Cloudesley Shovell: Stuart Admiral (2001) ISBN: 1862270996
References
- David Hepper - British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859 (1994)