HMS Thunderer was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 19 March 1760 at Woolwich.[1] She earned a battle honour in a single-ship action off Cadiz with the French ship Achille (64 guns) in 1761, during the Seven Years' War.
She foundered in the Great Hurricane of 1780 in the West Indies,[1] reportedly 90 miles east of Jamaica on the Formigas Banks with the loss of all 617 on board.[2] Among the lost sailors were the Captain, Robert Boyle-Walsingham (1736–1780), and Midshipman Nathaniel Cook (1764–1780), the second child of Captain James Cook.
Two cannons attributed to the ship are displayed at a rum cake factory on Grand Cayman Island. A plaque states that they were recovered in 1984 by the research vessel Beacon.[2]
Notes
External links
Media related to HMS Thunderer (ship, 1760) at Wikimedia Commons
References
- Lavery, Brian (2003). The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The Development of the Battlefleet 1650–1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.
- Tippin, G. Lee; Humphreys, Jr., Herbert (1989). In search of the Golden Madonna: the treasure finders of the RV Beacon. Daring Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-93893-686-2.