While returning from Gibraltar in 1707, a squadron of British Royal Navy ships went badly astray off the coast of England, with disastrous results. The tragedy, the worst maritime disaster in British history to that time, provoked demands for safer navigation. Parliament passed the Longitude Act of 1714, which created a panel of experts to oversee rewards for solving the problem of finding longitude at sea.
Media Asset:
Credit (appears under image in pop-up window):
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK
Short Caption (caption underneath the image in pop-up window):
“Sir Cloudisly Shovel [sic] in the Association with the Eagle, Rumney and the Firebrand, Lost on the Rocks of Scilly, October 22, 1707,” artist unknown, 18th century.
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Start Date (appears when user rolls over the image):
1707
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Learn More (links to an internal site page):
/navigating-at-sea/challenges/british-fleet-runs-aground
