List of major marine casualties in the 17th century

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This list of serious marine accidents in the 17th century records accidents in the sea , in which there was loss of life or extensive property damage.

Ship accidents between 1601 and 1700

date Surname dead Course of events
August 10, 1628 Vasa <50 On her maiden voyage , the Swedish warship Vasa sank in Stockholm harbor , killing 30 to 50 of the 150 crew members. Lifted in 1961, the ship is the most important monument in Stockholm in the Vasa Museum .
0June 4, 1629 Batavia 20 dead from the accident, 125 murdered The merchant ship of the Dutch East India Company ran aground on a reef near the west coast of Australia as a result of a navigation error. Among the castaways, who were initially able to save themselves on the reef, a mutiny soon broke out under the leadership of Jeronimus Cornelisz , the main aim of which was to steal the valuable cargo. In a reign of terror lasting several months, the mutineers killed 125 people until a relief force was able to put an end to it.
0November 2, 1641 Nuestra Señora de la Pura y Limpia Concepción 500 The Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Pura y Limpia Concepción , loaded with about 60 tons of silver, precious stones and Chinese porcelain from the Ming period , got caught in a severe storm in September 1641 after eight days of voyage from Havana to Spain damaged. After changing the route towards Puerto Rico in order to repair the damage, the ship ran into a coral reef about 110 km off the Dominican north coast on November 2 , struck a leak and sank. The 200-man crew and around 300 passengers perished. Because of the large amount of silver bars and silver coins that were carried with them, the reef was then called "Silver Bank". In 1684 , shipbuilder William Phips, born in New England (today's US state of Maine ), found the wreck off the coast of what is now the Dominican Republic after a three-year search and recovered part of the cargo in the form of 32 tons of silver. In later years, several expeditions salvaged additional parts of the cargo. In 1993, Captain Tracy Bowden finally acquired the salvage rights from the Dominican government and was able to recover a large amount of coins, diamonds, historical objects and Ming porcelain from the 15th century using the latest technology .
September 10, 1651 Shipyard accident in Emden 255 In the port of Emden , a newly built two-master of around 180 ts overturned during the launch. 255 people on deck and next to the ship were killed by the hull or fell to their death. The number of deaths could possibly have been even higher, but contemporary sources mostly speak of 255 victims, which would have included around 1.7 percent of the city's population at the time.
0November 6, 1664 La Lune 1,100 The French three-masted ship of the line La Lune sank on the morning of November 6, 1664 within sight of the French coast near Toulon off the Îles d'Hyères . Of the 1,200 people on board (350 men crew, many wounded and sick and 10 companies of the Regiment de Picardie ) only about 100 survived.
0May 5, 1668 Santissimo Sacramento 1,000 The Portuguese galleon Santissimo Sacramento , which was escorting a convoy sailing from Portugal to Brazil , ran into a reef shortly before the port of Salvador da Bahia due to a navigational error by the pilot . Despite the emergency signals, no ship could leave to provide assistance because of the stormy weather. Shortly before midnight, a gust of wind pushed the damaged ship off the reef into deep water, where it immediately sank. Of the more than 1,000 people on board, only 70 were able to save themselves.
October 11, 1683 Wapen of Hamburg 64 The Hamburg convoy ship Wapen von Hamburg caught fire on October 10, 1683, after being escorted by a convoy in the port of Cádiz . All attempts to extinguish the fire failed, so that the ship finally exploded shortly after midnight when the fire reached the powder chamber. Admiral Berend Jacobsen Karpfanger , who was already famous during his lifetime, was killed on the ship.
October 22, 1690 Breda 600 In the port of Cork (Ireland) the British 70-gun liner Breda caught fire for unknown reasons and exploded after the flames had reached the powder chamber. Around 600 seamen and marines were killed, only a few survived.
0September 3, 1691 Coronation and Harwich 1,000 A naval formation of the Royal Navy and the Koninklijke Marine cruising in the English Channel off Plymouth was hit by a severe south-west storm. The ships were in great danger of being driven to the coast. Several captains therefore decided to make the dangerous attempt to enter the Plymouth Sound and thus to get to safety. Here the ship of the line Harwich (70 cannons) ran aground at Maker Point and was smashed by the surf, whereby 450 men of the crew drowned. The ship of the line Coronation (90 cannons) lost its masts before entering the Plymouth Sound, tried to save itself by anchoring and sank between Rame Head and Penlee Point in a rain squall. Of the approximately 550 crew, only about 20 survived. The ships of the line Royal Oak (74 cannons) and Northumberland and a number of smaller ships also ran aground; but the crews could be saved.
0March 1, 1694 ? 823 An Anglo-Dutch naval association under the command of Admiral Sir Francis Wheler with a total of around 85 war and merchant ships got into a severe storm off Gibraltar . A total of 13 ships were lost, including the flagship Sussex (80 cannons), the two smaller ships of the line Cambridge (70 cannons) and Lumley Castle (56 cannons) and three smaller warships. Only two of the 550 men on board the Sussex were able to save themselves. A total of 823 Royal Navy crew members died . The number of victims on the lost merchant ships is unknown. There was likely a large amount of money on board the Sussex .

See also