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Home > Shipwrecks > Royal Navy Ships

Scuttled Royal Navy Vessels

The precise location is unknown for many of these vessels but is likely that they were sunk as part of the development of Devonport Dockyard.

It has been suggested that ships were sunk as foundations for the Mount Batten breakwater which was started in 1878 and completed in 1881.

(HMS) Anglesea

1741 establishment 44 gun ship launched in 1746 at Liverpool. Anglesea was taken by the 50 gun French ship Apollon in 1745 but was recaptured in 1753.

Sunk on 26th September 1764 as a breakwater in Mutton Cove, possibly in connection with building a slipway at the southern limit of the Dockyard.

(HMS) Dunwich

The Dunwich was built by William Collins and Robert Chatfield at the Shoreham dockyard. She was ordered on the 22nd March 1695 at a cost of £1,625, hull only, with £812 for fittings. She was launched in October 1695 and commisioned the following May under Captain Nicholas Trevanion.

Her career mainly saw her patrolling the Channel and North Sea. During her service she captured five privateers: La Gracieuse (7.03.1703), Le Roue de Fortune (5.5.1707), Le Chasseur (24.08.1709), Le Téméraire (6.9.1711) and Le Saint-Jean (29.7.1712).

She was laid up in Plymouth 1713, and after being stripped of her guns, stores and upper deck fittings, was sunk as a breakwater on 15th October 1714.

(HMS) Mary Gall(e)y

1741 establishment 44 gun ship launched in 1744 at Rotherhithe

Sunk on 20th April 1764 as a breakwater in Plymouth, location unknown.

(HMS) Moor

The Moor, orginally La Maure, was built in 1688 in Toulon. She was captured as a prize in the Mediterranean by the Breda, Warspite and Berwick.

After being registered in May 1711, she then saw service in the Baltic and Mediterranean before being stripped of her fittings and sunk in Plymouth as a breakwater on the 17th March 1716.

(HMS) Saudadoes Prize

Captured in the channel by the Saudadoes, the French ship La Victoire, was renamed according to her captor, hence her name Saudadoes Prize. After her capture in 1692 she was re-fitted at the Deptford Dockyard and then commissioned in 1693 under Cmdr William Power, bound for the Thames approaches.

By 1708 she was a hulk at Plymouth, stripped of her armament and stores she was then sunk in 1712 as a breakwater.

(HMS) Vengeance

The Vengeance was built in 1757 at St Malo. Originally La Vengeance she was taken by the Hussar in January of 1758. The Ship was then purchased by the Admiarlty and fitted out in Plymouth for a cost of £1,619.18.6d. Commsioned in the September of that year her first service saw her bound for the North sea under Captain Gamaliel Nightingale in the October. During her service the Vengeance took Letters of Marque from Le Comte de Nancy (April 1760) and L'Entrepant (March 1761). In 1761 she captured 3 privateers; Le Minerve, Le Tigre and L'Auguste.

After being resurveyed in August 1766 it was decided that she would be fitted as a Breakwater and was sunk in Plymouth in October of that year.

If you have any more information about these ships then please contact us.