October 22nd Sir Cloudsley Shovell (Death)
     

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Cloudesley Shovell MP (1650 – 1707) saw action in the Third Anglo-Dutch War, in the wars in Ireland and in the War of the Spanish Succession.

Appointed commander-in-chief of the Navy while at Lisbon, Shovell also served as MP for Rochester (1695 – 1701; 1705 – 1707), and was killed when returning from attack on Toulon. 

His flagship ‘HMS Association’, was wrecked on Scilly, sinking in four minutes with the loss of all 800 crew.  Three other ships, the third-rate ‘HMS Eagle’, the fourth-rate ‘HMS Romney’ and the fire ship ‘HMS Firebrand’ sank, leading to the loss of  2,000 sailors in a single night.

Shovell’s body, along with those of both of his stepsons, was recovered in Porthellick Cove on St Mary’s, nearly seven miles from where his ship was wrecked. It has been suggested that Shovell, stepsons and the captain of his ship escaped on one of its boats and all drowned while trying to get ashore.

On the order of Queen Anne, his body was returned to Plymouth and carried in state to London prior to his internment at Westminster Abbey on December 22nd, 1707 and commemorated with a marble monument in the south choir aisle.

 

 

 

 
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