HMS Romney was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line

Ship of the line

A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, launched at Blackwall Yard

Blackwall Yard

Blackwall Yard was a shipyard on the Thames at Blackwall, London, engaged in ship building and later ship repairs for over 350 years. The yard closed in 1987...

 in 1694.

Commanded by Captain William Coney, Romney was wrecked on the Scilly Isles

Isles of Scilly

The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part...

 on 26 October 1707 when a disastrous navigational error sent Admiral

Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy)

Admiral of the fleet is the highest rank of the British Royal Navy and other navies, which equates to the NATO rank code OF-10. The rank still exists in the Royal Navy but routine appointments ceased in 1996....

 Sir Cloudesley Shovell

Cloudesley Shovell

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Cloudesley Shovell , was an English naval officer. Rising through the ranks and fighting in many of the important battles of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, he became a popular British hero, whose celebrated career was brought to an end in a disastrous shipwreck in...

's fleet through dangerous reefs while on their way from Gibraltar to Portsmouth. Four ships (Romney, Association

HMS Association

HMS Association was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1697. She served with distinction at the capture of Gibraltar, and was lost in 1707 by grounding on the Isles of Scilly in the greatest maritime disaster of the age.-Service:Association...

, Firebrand

HMS Firebrand (1694)

HMS Firebrand was a Royal Navy fireship built at Limehouse in 1694, the first Royal Naval vessel to bear the name.-Service:Firebrand served in the Caribbean and Mediterranean...

 and Eagle

HMS Eagle (1679)

HMS Eagle was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1679.She underwent a rebuild at Chatham Dockyard in 1699, retaining her armament of 70 guns....

) were lost, with nearly 2,000 sailors. Romney hit Bishop Rock and went down with all but one of her crew. The sole survivor was George Lawrence, who had worked as a butcher before joining the crew of Romney as quartermaster. The Scilly naval disaster

Scilly naval disaster of 1707

Scilly naval disaster of 1707 is an umbrella term for the events of 22 October 1707 that led to the sinking of a British naval fleet off the Isles of Scilly. With four large ships and more than 1,400 sailors lost in stormy weather, it was one of the greatest maritime disasters in the history of...

 was one of the greatest maritime

Sea

A sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts as well. Most commonly, it means a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, and is commonly used as a synonym for ocean...

 disasters in British history. It was largely as a result of this disaster that the Board of the Admiralty instituted a competition

Longitude prize

The Longitude Prize was a reward offered by the British government for a simple and practical method for the precise determination of a ship's longitude...

 for a more precise method to determine longitude

Longitude

Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds, and denoted by the Greek letter lambda ....

.