HMS Captain 1870         

Introduction

(image courtesy of http://bigbadbattleships.com)

Perhaps in one of the British Royal Navy’s greatest peacetime losses, HMS Captain, an experimental ship, capsized during her trials in the Bay of Biscay, on 7th September 1870, with only around 20 survivors out of a crew of over 500.

The capsizing occurred during a storm, described by those on traditional ships in the same fleet as unexceptional, and created a public outcry and nationwide sympathy for the bereaved.

The Royal Navy placed a buoy to mark the exact location where HMS Captain sank. This buoy, now gone, was still in place twenty years later when HMS Serpent was also lost in the same area. For many years, Her Majesty's ships, when passing through the area would fire their guns in salute in honour of the victim of Coles's ship, whilst in 1874 the English Channel Fleet gathered in the area to pay their respects. (quoted in Náufragos de Antaño by Juan Campos)

The most tangible memorial to the disaster today comprises two large plaques in St Paul’s Cathedral in London, one giving the official account of the disaster, with a list of the ship’s officers, and the other listing the seamen, Royal Marines and boys who died.

Many descendants of survivors, relying on word-of-mouth family history stories, are interested in the details of the accident, and the records of both those lost and the very few who survived. Some have been in touch with each other, and exchanged information, and the primary purpose of this web-site is to make available to all existing and new investigators any information available. It may, of course, be of interest to naval historians as well.

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