HMS ''Swift'' was built in 1762 at the shipyard of John Greave in

Limehouse Limehouse is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is east of Charing Cross, on the northern bank of the River Thames. Its proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through ...

, on the banks of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

, and launched in 1763. It was a sloop-of-war in length and was armed with 14 guns and 12 pedreros of pound. It sank along the coast of

Puerto Deseado Puerto Deseado, originally called Port Desire, is a city of about 15,000 inhabitants and a fishing port in Patagonia in Santa Cruz Province of Argentina, on the estuary of the Deseado River. It was named ''Port Desire'' by the privateer Thomas ...

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...

in 1770. The discovery of HMS ''Swift'' in Puerto Deseado represented the beginning of underwater archaeology in Argentina.

Ship

The HMS Swift was a sloop-of-war in length and was armed with 14 guns and 12 pedreros of pound.

Wreck

Based at

Port Egmont Port Egmont (Spanish: ''Puerto de la Cruzada''; French: ''Poil de la Croisade'') was the first British settlement in the Falkland Islands, on Saunders Island off West Falkland, and is named after the Earl of Egmont. Toponym The original name ...

in the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouze ...

, ''Swift'' undertook an exploratory trip along the

n coasts before the winter of 1770. A storm forced them to stop near the site of present-day

to rest and dry their clothes. Entering the

Río Deseado Deseado River () is a river in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz. The name Deseado comes from the English ''Desire'', the name of one of the two ships commanded by John Davis during the Thomas Cavendish expedition of 1592. The source of t ...

, they ran aground on a submerged rock and, although after getting rid of much of the cargo, they managed to free the ship, minutes later they came across a second uncharted rock. At 18:00 on 13 March 1770, ''Swift'' sank along the coast of Puerto Deseado. Three of the ninety-one crew members (the cook and two soldiers) died. The cook's body appeared days later and he was buried after an impromptu funeral. At the time of the wreak, the ship was under the command of Captain George Farmer. The ship was commissioned to defend the base of Port Egmond, and at the time was embarked on an exploratory voyage of South America.

Archaeological exploration

The discovery of HMS ''Swift'' in Puerto Deseado represented the beginning of underwater archaeology in Argentina. The ships wreckage became part of the impulse that led to the first national laws regarding underwater archaeology in the country. Investigations into the wreckage were primarily done by the

National Institute of Anthropology and Latin American Thought The National Institute of Anthropology and Latin American Thought ( es, Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano; INAPL) is an Argentine government agency dedicated to preserving national Cultural heritage, cultural and ...

(INAPL).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swift (1763), HMS 1763 ships Sloops of the Royal Navy