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On 26th October 1760, the 68-gun 3rd rate Royal Navy warship Conqueror was wrecked on Drake’s Island in Plymouth Sound.

Type

A Royal Navy 68 gun warship

Location

Drake's island, Pilot Shoal

History

Conqueror was a 3rd rate, 68-gun Temple Class Royal Navy warship, built by Barnard and Turner at Harwich in Suffolk, see picture.  Her keel was laid down on 9th February 1757 and she was launched 15 months later, Conqueror was 160 ft. long, had a beam of 45 ft. and a draught of 19 ft. 4 in.  On 7th June 1759, the Conqueror in company with Culloden (74) and Jersey (60), attacked two French frigates that had been chased into a bay near Toulon, Conqueror also took part in Admiral the Hon. Edward Boscawen's victory over the French in the two-day Battle of Lagos, see picture.

At the end of October 1760, the Conqueror was in Plymouth having returned from Quiberon Bay with a convoy of victualling ships, anchored about a mile and a half to the west of the Withyhedge inside Plymouth Sound.  Captain Lloyd was unwell when he arrived in Plymouth, and he asked permission to be able to go ashore to recuperate, the Master, Henry Freer, was also sick but he remained on board the ship.  The First Lieutenant, John Bastard, was ordered to keep the ship ready to be taken into the Hamoaze by the Pilot and to send a boat every morning so the Captain could return when the Pilot was ready to move the ship.  On the morning of Sunday 26th October, a boat was sent from Conqueror to Plymouth as ordered and reported to the Captain that the Pilot had not yet arrived.  But just after the Captain’s boat left Conqueror, the Pilot Henry Harris arrived alongside.  Harris was one of the pilots who operated in Plymouth Sound, taking warships and other vessels on the difficult journey from the Sound into the Hamoaze, a complicated route bordered with shallow rocks, through the narrow entrance at Devil’s Point and through tricky currents.

By this time the wind had increased, Captain Lloyd ordered the boat to go back to Conqueror and return if the pilot appeared, but shortly afterwards the Coxswain returned to the captain to say that the wind was so strong that he could not row back to the ship.  At this point, we find out two versions of events from the transcript of the Court Martial held over the loss of the Conqueror, with one version of events provided by pilot Henry Harris and the other version provided by the others on board.  Harris arrived at 10:30 am fully intent on bringing Conqueror into the Hamoaze despite the hazy visibility and the wind blowing hard from the southwest, later described as ‘moderate’ by the pilot. At the time the ship was moored East and west about a mile and a half from the Withyhedge.  The small bower anchor lay to the east, downwind, so this was picked up first leaving the ship secured to the seabed by the best bower anchor. The wind shifted to the south-southeast, but at 1 pm and at low tide, the Pilot ordered the topsails to be loosed, the other anchor was pulled from the seabed and hauled up alongside the ship, and Conqueror was then at the mercy of the wind. 

At this point the Pilot lost control of the ship and her bows came up into the wind, pressing the sails against the mast and making the ship drive backwards towards Drake’s Island.  The First Lieutenant told the Pilot to let go of the anchor, but he dithered, saying ‘What did it signify for the ship would be ashore’, the Pilot eventually ordered the anchor to be let go but by then it was too late.  The ship touched bottom before the anchor was dropped, her bows swung round to the east, with the wind on her beam and the waves breaking over her sides.  The anchor had been dropped too late and had no effect at all.

The Pilot called for the Master, Henry Freer, who came up on the quarterdeck, and in the presence of his first Lieutenant ordered the foretopsail to be filled and the anchor cable to be cut to force the ship over the shallow rocks.  The Pilot disagreed and said if the anchor cable was cut he would relinquish command, but when pressed by the First Lieutenant the Pilot followed the Master’s instructions.  They set all sail they could, a carpenter cut the anchor cable thinking that was holding her back, but the anchor cable that had been paid out was just floating uselessly in a big loop alongside the ship.  The ship was firmly wedged on the rocks on the outermost part of the island and would not move again.

Guns were fired from the ship to alert people on the shore to the peril that the ship was in, and the masts were cut down to reduce the effect of the wind blowing the ship further inshore when the tide came in.  About an hour later the action of the sea beat a hole in her bottom and she filled with water. After two days they knew that the ship could not be saved but they still had hopes that they could save the stores so recovered what they could when the weather allowed. By 31st October the ship had fallen over onto her starboard side and shipwrights had cut holes in her sides so the cables, provisions and stores could be unloaded. By 4th November the weather had worsened and the bottom of the ship at the stern had broken off, the hull was collapsing, and the upper deck now lay on top of the lower deck guns that they had not yet recovered.

On 5th November the 520 crew of the Conqueror were shifted to the Expedition hulk to await allocation to other warships.  That same day, Captain William Lloyd, Henry Freer the Master and the Pilot Henry Harris were court-martialled aboard the warship Barfleur in the Hamoaze.  Captain William Lloyd was tried for not being onboard his Majesty’s ship Conqueror when she got underway in the Sound on the day she was lost but was acquitted.  The Master was also acquitted of cutting the anchor cable contrary to the Pilot’s orders because there were witnesses that said the Pilot had agreed to it.  The wrath of the Court fell upon the Pilot, who was described as ‘highly blameable in geting the said ship under way in such weather as prevailed at that time, and from his want of knowledge as a seaman, did not direct the proper sails to be set’.  Henry Harris was sentenced to be confined for eighteen months in the notorious Marshalsea prison in Southwark, in London.

What happened to Harris is not recorded.  By his ineptitude, Harris wrecked a huge 68-gun warship which was less than three years old and cost £24600 at that time, the equivalent of £5,650,000 today. In 1760 only about 15,000 people were living in Plymouth and the huge warship stuck on the rocks would have been a significant landmark, so the Pilot’s mistake would have been very well known across the Three Towns.  Inspecting early charts of Plymouth, the rocks on which Harris wrecked the Conqueror were not named at the time she hit them, but the rocks are now known as ‘Pilot Shoal’.  Perhaps the sailors of Plymouth named the rocks after the Pilot who wrecked the Conqueror? 

This is a digest version of this account, for more information please contact The SHIPS Project.

Location and Access

The Conqueror wrecked on the rocks to the southeast of Drake's Island that are known as Pilot Shoal.

Last updated 07 May 2023