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Summary

HMS Venerable, built 1784, 74 gun, wrecked off Roundham Head in 1804.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Pastscape: 1528007
• Pastscape: 877207
• Tide Project: 21/09/2020

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• WRECK (XVIII - 1784 AD (Between) to 1784 AD (Between))

Full description

National Monuments Record, 2020, Pastscape (Website). SDV363416.

Pastscape shows two entries for HMS Venerable.

First entry details various accounts of the ships demise, one of which is below:
1804 wreck of British Third Rate ship of the line which stranded and bilged on her departure from Torbay, her intended voyage being to blockade Brest. Constructed of wood in 1784, she was a sailing vessel of 74 guns.

'On Saturday afternoon, the wind shifted suddenly from SW to NE 'in a shower' and at 4.30pm, Admiral Cornwallis made a signal for the fleet under his command to get under way, all of which got round Berry Head except for the Venerable. As they fished the anchor the Master's mate fell overboard. A boat with crew was lowered in order to recover him, but in their hurry the fore tackle gave way, and the boat fell into the sea, throwing the crew out, which event threw the vessel into confusion. The crew attempted to stay her, but did not have room to wear ship and went ashore at Roundem Head, near Paignton at 8.30pm. The vessel bilged herself on a point of rock, firing distress signals. The Impetueux and Goliath returned, and assisted by local cutter Frisk saved all her crew but one (the master's mate, David Evans). The Venerable went to pieces...74 Guns.

Second entry focuses on salvage of the Venerable:
HMS Venerable, a Third Rate 74-gun ship built in 1784, was lost on Roundham Head on 24 November 1804. The wreck was salvaged on two occasions during the last century and has been dived regularly since 1971 by the diver concerned. In the late 1970s unknown divers conducted extensive digging on the site and exposed structure normally buried under the sand.

Dived 15-AUG-1993, in good conditions with 3m visibility, no significant current.

The finder described the location of two visible artefacts, the muzzle of an iron cannon and a brass bolt, neither of which was located by the ADU diver, but a concretion around an iron bar or pipe (0.55m x 0.05m x 0.05m) was discovered. He has raised a number of small artefacts from the wreck over the years, all of which he has drawn. In addition he knows of a sounding lead which has been removed by other divers. Divers in the late 1970s uncovered a substantial part of a ship's hull buried in sand close to shore and described what they had uncovered to the National Maritime Museum.

The site lies between 5 and 50 metres from the shore. The near shore section is covered with very large conglomerate boulders which have eroded and fallen from the headland. Underwater, these form gullies and crevices which vary considerably in size, but are usually no more than 1-2m deep and a few metres wide, and partially filled with sand and gravel. Weed growth on the boulders was prolific. The boulder field slopes gradually from the shore to a distance of about 20m where it meets flat sand.

The site is popular with divers and had become increasingly popular in the year prior to the visit. A well-known divers' guide states that "divers on the site today can still find cannonballs and quite a lot of small lead shot." Although it was felt that most divers would not recognise or be aware of the site underwater unless they were told, the removal of artefacts and the possibility of intensive investigation attracting attention was a source of concern to the finder.

In addition to the Venerable, there are two other wrecks on Roundham Head, HMS Savage and T-189.

South West Maritime Archaeological Group, 2020, South West Maritime Archaeological Group (Website). SDV363846.

HMS Venerable was launched at Perry’s yard in Blackwall on 19th April 1784. It took approximately 4000 mature oak trees to build her over a two year period at a cost of approximately £3800. She was 170 ft long with a beam of 47 ft and weighed over 1650 tons. Many other ships were produced at the same yard including HMS Crocodile, a 24 gun sixth rate, who met her death not far away from HMS Venerable in 1784. Also not far away in South Devon, lies the wreck of another older ship, HMS Ramillies.

The Venerable was involved in two battles, The Battle of Algeciras and The Battle of Camperdown.

There is a statue of Jack Crawford in Sunderland dedicated to his contribution in the Battle of Camperdown. When the colours were shot from the mast ( a sign of surrender) Jack recovered the colours and climbed the mast to put them back. This is where ‘Nailed the colours to the mast’ originated. This ultimately led to the victory.

Sunderland Maritime Heritage as a salute to their local hero and to train up and coming shipwrights, built a quarter scale model of HMS Venerable.

HMS Venerable is the only British man-of-war known to have been lost because a man fell overboard! On Saturday 24th November 1804, the Channel Fleet was at anchor in Tor Bay. One ship was the third-rate 74-gun HMS Venerable, under the command of Captain John Hunter. At 3pm, the wind suddenly shifted wildly from west to north-east. With the wind came rain, blotting out most shore marks. At 4.30pm as the wind increased, the admiral decided his ships would be safer out at sea and made the order to sail. The Navy crews raised their anchors and were lashing them to the catheads as they fought their way out of Tor Bay against the wind. In Venerable, all was going well, but just as the men were “in the act of hooking the cat”, a seaman fell overboard from his perch on the anchor itself.

In avoiding collisions, they lost more ground and suddenly on tacking, found themselves near the lights of Paignton. They tried once more to round Berry Head, but could not make it and north they went again. Another ship loomed ahead of them and in avoiding her they lost more ground. At 8.30pm the wind died and as it did so the big warship touched bottom and then grounded hard. The rain stopped and they could see that they were “under Paignton cliffs”. The Venerable was held by rocks fore and aft.

At midnight, the Venerable was almost right over and soon after the last man was taken off she broke in two amidships. Shortly after that Captain Hunter saw his ship “break into a hundred thousand pieces” but the loss of men, thanks to Impetueux and Goliath, which took off 547, was only eight, including the midshipman and two sailors who drowned trying to rescue the man overboard.

Most of the guns of the Venerable were salvaged. However, divers on the site have found cannonballs and quite a lot of small lead shot

In 1835 the Deane brothers demonstrated their diving skills in Torbay harbour and moved on to salvage the Venerable. Being so close to the shore the local started salvaging her the day after she sank and there is even a report of the landowner being shot in the shoulder by the military whilst he was involved in this salvage. The Deane brothers removed the cannons as well as small artefacts and sections of worm holed timber, currently in Portsmouth Museum. During the 70’s and 80’s, local divers recovered most of the small artefacts visible.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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