''Firebrand'' was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

fireship A fire ship or fireship, used in the days of wooden rowed or sailing ships, was a ship filled with combustibles, or gunpowder deliberately set on fire and steered (or, when possible, allowed to drift) into an enemy fleet, in order to destroy sh ...

built at

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 ...

in 1694, the first Royal Naval vessel to bear the name.

Service

''Firebrand'' served in the Caribbean and

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

. She is recorded as convoying five merchantmen in company with ''Winchester'' near

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

in March 1695.

Loss

''Firebrand'' was lost during the

Scilly naval disaster of 1707 The Scilly naval disaster of 1707 was the loss of four warships of a Royal Navy fleet off the Isles of Scilly in severe weather on 22 October 1707. Between 1,400 and 2,000 sailors lost their lives aboard the wrecked vessels, making the incident ...

when a navigational error sent Admiral Sir

Cloudesley Shovell Admiral of the Fleet Sir Cloudesley Shovell (c. November 1650 – 22 or 23 October 1707) was an English naval officer. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Solebay and then at the Battle of Texel during the Third Anglo-Dutch Wa ...

's fleet through dangerous reefs west of

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

while on their way from Gibraltar to Portsmouth. On the night of 22 October 1707, ''Firebrand'', commanded by Captain Francis Percy, smashed into the Outer Gilstone Rock off the Isles of Scilly. She was lifted off by a huge wave first, and Percy managed to steer his badly damaged ship along the southern side of the Western Rocks between St Agnes and Annet, but she foundered in Smith Sound, sinking close to Menglow Rock and losing 28 of her crew of 40. Percy and a group of his men managed to get ashore by boat, another five of the crew got ashore on pieces of wreckage. Three more ships ( ''Eagle'', ''Romney'' and Shovell's flagship ''Association'') also sank that night, bringing the total of sailors lost to nearly 2,000. The Scilly naval disaster was one of the greatest

maritime Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prin ...

disasters in British history. It was largely as a result of this disaster that the

Board of the Admiralty The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of i ...

instituted a

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indiv ...

for a more precise method to determine

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east– west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lette ...

Discovery of the wreck

''Firebrand'' lies between the islands of St Agnes and the islet of Annet in position at a depth of 8 to 25 meters. The wreck was discovered in Smith Sound in 1982, and several items were recovered, including guns and anchors, a wooden "nocturne" (for the time at night), a bell and carved cherubs. In 2006, researchers and students from Bristol University conducted the first archaeological survey of the vessel. This was also the first physical study of this type of Royal Navy ship.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Firebrand (1694) 1690s ships Archaeology of shipwrecks Cornish shipwrecks Fireships of the Royal Navy Maritime incidents in 1707 Shipwrecks of the Isles of Scilly