HMY ''Mary'' was the first Royal Yacht of the

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 ...

. She was built in 1660 by the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

. Then she was purchased by the City of Amsterdam and given to King Charles II, on the restoration of the monarchy, as part of the

Dutch Gift The Dutch Gift of 1660 was a collection of 24 mostly Italian Renaissance paintings, four by Dutch Masters, and twelve classical sculptures. The gift was presented to newly-restored King Charles II of England on 16 November by envoys of the Sta ...

. She struck rocks off

Anglesey Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...

in thick fog on 25 March 1675 while en route from Dublin to Chester. Although 35 of the 74 crew and passengers were killed as the wreck quickly broke up, 39 managed to get to safety. The remains (bronze cannon) were independently discovered by two different diving groups in July 1971. After looters started to remove guns from the site, a rescue operation was organized and the remaining guns and other artifacts were taken to the Merseyside Museums for conservation and display. After the passing of the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973, she was designated as a protected site on 20 January 1974.

Construction and sailing life

She was the first of some 27 yachts which the king owned between 1660 and 1685. The word ''

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

'' derives from a Dutch word ''jagen'', meaning to hunt. Her hull was copper clad to ensure that barnacles and other sea creatures did not adhere and cause drag. The Dutch yacht is the fore-runner of the

Thames sailing barge A Thames sailing barge is a type of commercial sailing boat once common on the River Thames in London. The flat-bottomed barges with a shallow draught and leeboards, were perfectly adapted to the Thames Estuary, with its shallow waters and na ...

. They had a large sail area, but a shallow draught that enabled them to navigate shallow waters. As with a sailing barge, sailing was achieved by means of a

leeboard A leeboard is a form of pivoting keel used by a sailboat largely and very often in lieu of a fixed keel. Typically mounted in pairs on each side of a hull, leeboards function much like a centreboard, allowing shallow-draft craft to ply waters f ...

instead of having a deep keel. The shallow draught meant that she needed to carry additional ballast when sailing deeper waters. She was built for luxury with a decorated counter. She is mentioned in the diaries of Samuel Pepys. Charles II enjoyed racing and after owning her for a year commissioned the ''Katherine'' as a faster replacement; the first vessel built for him by

Phineas Pett Phineas Pett (1 November 1570 – August 1647) was a shipwright and First Resident Commissioner of Chatham Dockyard and a member of the Pett dynasty. Phineas left a memoir of his activities which is preserved in the British Library and was publi ...

. ''Mary'' was then used for transporting diplomats and civil servants and was used regularly for journeys across the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

between

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

and Holyhead.

Wrecking, recovery and protection

She was on a regular journey across the

, en route from

to Chester, on 25 March 1675. In the early hours of the morning in thick fog, she struck rocks on the south-west corner of The Skerries off

at position . The ship soon capsized and sank, and of the 28 crew and 46 passengers, only 39 scrambled ashore to be rescued two days later. The bronze guns were discovered by both the Chorley Sub Aqua Club and the Merseyside Sub Aqua Club in the same month. Under the direction of Peter Davies of Liverpool University and the Merseyside Museums, the artefacts were rescued from the site before they were lost to looters. The collection was conserved by the Liverpool City Museums Conservation Department and the Merseyside Museums now have over 1,500 objects from the ''Mary'', including cutlery and jewellery. A model of the ''Mary'', built by Des Newton is also on display. The

Protection of Wrecks Act The Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 (c. 33) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provides protection for designated shipwrecks. Section 1 of the act provides for wrecks to be designated because of historical, archaeological or ...

was passed in 1974 and the ''Mary'' was amongst the first designations (after the ''

Cattewater The city of Plymouth, Devon, England is bounded by Dartmoor to the north, the Hamoaze to the west, the open expanse of water called Plymouth Sound to the south and the river Plym to the east. The Cattewater is that stretch of water where the mo ...

'') in 1974. The site is regularly monitored by the contractor for the Protection of Wrecks Act and by the licensee.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Tanner, Matthew (2008), "Royal Yacht Mary - The Discovery of the First Royal Yacht" NML
English Heritage Maritime Archaeology Publications
for ACHWS annual reports, guidance on historic wrecks and other relevant material
Cadw website
information about the protection of wrecks and other maritime sites in Wales * Fenwick, Valerie and Gale, Alison (1998), ''Historic Shipwrecks, Discovered, Protected and Investigated'', pp. 112–113, Tempus Publishing Limited, .

External links

* Liverpool Museums
Scale model of HMY ''Mary''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mary 1660s ships Protected Wrecks of Wales Royal Yachts of the Kingdom of England Maritime incidents in 1675 History of Anglesey 1675 in Europe Cylch-y-Garn 17th century in Amsterdam Diplomatic gifts Foreign relations of the Dutch Republic Former properties of the Dutch East India Company Ships built in Amsterdam 1660 in the Dutch Republic 1670s in Wales

Construction and sailing life

Wrecking, recovery and protection

See also

References

External links