Blue Plaque Trail:

Cloudesley Shovell

On the stormy night of October 22nd 1707, a maritime tragedy of epic proportions occurred when half the English fleet, returning from Gibraltar under the command of the famous naval hero Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, foundered on rocks off the Scilly Isles...

Her Majesty’s Ships Eagle, Romney, Firebrand and the fleet’s flagship, the 90-gun HMS Association, probably the most powerful ship of its day and a potent symbol of England’s naval might, were all lost, along with at least 1,400 seamen and Shovell himself.

The disaster occurred because of a simple navigational error: poor visibility meant that Shovell had to estimate his fleet’s position using the notoriously unreliable method of ‘dead reckoning’ – educated guesswork based on an estimate of speed and course since last known position. Convinced they were entering the English Channel, the fleet continued on a northwesterly course, unaware that they were in fact much further to the west. We can only imagine the terrible shock of the sudden impact and the ensuing panic of the men as without warning the great ships struck the rocks of Gilstone Ledges, then quickly disappeared beneath the great waves. Ironically, very few sailors in those days could swim and few survived. Among those lost were Shovell’s two young stepsons who were just starting their naval careers with him. Bodies of men and ship’s wreckage continued to wash up on the shores for days afterwards. It was a bitter blow to English pride – in the course of a few minutes she had lost her most powerful ships, a great number of her best fighting men, and her greatest naval hero and commander, at a time when war with France was raging. Several days of national mourning followed and Shovell’s body was buried in Westminster Cathedral, commemorated by a large and showy marble memorial.

The incident led to the Longitude Act with the offer of a prize for anyone who could improve navigation by devising a practical method of determining longitude at sea. It is portrayed at the beginning of Dava Sobel’s popular book, Longitude, but with the addition of a couple of commonly told myths thrown in to ‘sex it up a bit’ (Shovell’s hanging an insubordinate seaman who tries to warn him of the rocks ahead, and his own death at the hands of a washerwoman thief who finds him half-alive washed up on the shore and steals his jewellery). He is portrayed as arrogant and incompetent, but there is nothing in the record of his career to suggest this – it seems that the opposite was true.

Shovell was born in 1650 in Norfolk to a ‘middling family’ and began an apprenticeship as a shoemaker before entering the navy as a cabin-boy at the age of 14. He applied himself with diligence and success and soon became recognized as an accomplished seaman. After repeatedly distinguishing himself in both war and diplomacy, he was rapidly promoted to the highest offices. Paintings portray him as a portly and unsmiling man, but his sailors loved and admired him and he was as popular a hero amongst the English people as Lord Admiral Nelson would be a hundred years later. So what is Cloudesley Shovell’s link with Hastings? Although he never lived here, his mother did, in a house on All Saints Street, now owned by the Sussex Archaeological Society. There is a famous and quite touching story about his visit to Hastings related in E V Lucas’s 1921 book Highways and Byways in Sussex:

“Among the inhabitants of the old town was the mother of Sir Cloudesley Shovel, the admiral. A charming account of a visit paid to her by her son is given in De la Prynne's diary: "I heard a gentleman say, who was in the ship with him about six years ago, that as they were sailing over against the town, of Hastings, in Sussex, Sir Cloudesley called out, 'Pilot, put near; I have a little business on shore.' So he put near, and Sir Cloudesley and this gentleman went to shore in a small boat, and having walked about half a mile, Sir Cloudesley came to a little house [in All Saints Street], 'Come,' says he, 'my business is here; I came on purpose to see the good woman of this house.' Upon this they knocked at the door, and out came a poor old woman, upon which Sir Cloudesley kissed her, and then falling down on his knees, begged her blessing, and calling her mother (who had removed out of Yorkshire hither). He was mightily kind to her, and she to him, and after that he had made his visit, he left her ten guineas, and took his leave with tears in his eyes and departed to his ship."