MID-18TH CENTURY

The smaller vessel in these cut-paper pictures is not readily identifiable, however, the larger ship is almost certainly the famous H.M.S. Royal George, shown here flying a Hanoverian flag indicating the presence of the King himself.

The 100-gun first rate Royal George was laid down in Woolwich Dockyard as the Royal Anne in January 1747, but renamed in January 1756, one month before she was launched on 18 February. Measured by her builder (J. Pownell) at 2,065 tons, she was 178 feet in length with a 52 foot beam, and mounted 28 guns on each of her three decks with a further 12 on her quarterdeck and 4 on her forecastle. With the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) in its opening stages, she was commissioned as soon as she was completed and saw action almost immediately. Acting as flagship to Admiral Sir Edward Hawke, she led the fleet into the dangerous shoals of Quiberon Bay on 20 November 1759, where Hawke's daring was rewarded in a crushing defeat of the French in one of the most decisive naval battles of the eighteenth century.

The fame of the great ship's victories was overshadowed by her sudden sinking in Portsmouth harbor on 29 August 1782. As she was anchored and taking on stores, a party of dockyard plumbers came aboard to fit a new water pump and requested that the ship be heeled over to allow a small hole to be bored in her side. Captain Waghorn agreed and various banks of the ship's cannon were moved to new positions to facilitate the repair. Suddenly and apparently without warning, water began pouring into the lower deck and, within minutes, the Royal George sank. The loss of life was catastrophic, with Rear-Admiral Kempenfelt, known as the ‘brains of the navy', along with many of her crew and countless visitors, including women and children, meeting their demise. Some estimates put the loss as high as 900 persons, although the actual toll could never be verified.

Although numerous monuments to the disastrous end of the Royal George have shaped its place in memory, the present cut-paper picture predates the sinking by several decades, capturing the new ship in its full glory. Given the mid-18th century fabrication, it is quite conceivable that the picture commemorates her 1756 launch, with the Hanoverian flag referring to George II in his latter years.