HMS Stirling Castle (1697)

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70-gun, 1,097-ton, third-rate Royal Navy ship. Built at Deptford in 1697.

[edit] Wreck

Wrecked on the Goodwin Sands in the Great Storm of 1703. Unlike her two wrecked sister ships, where all perished, 21 men survived, because she seems to have dragged its anchor, slowing the ship's progress towards the Goodwin Sands and meaning that it reached the sands at high tide, narrowly avoiding the fate of the other ships which were grounded. As the storm continued, the tides turned and dragged the ship sideways, trapping it between the new tidal currents and the oncoming storms. The resulting tumultuous seas swamped the ship. Full of water, it sank on to the sands, leaving just the stern exposed for a fortunate few to cling to.

Re-emerged from the sand in 1979 and 2002. Relics from her were on show at Bleak House at Broadstairs while it was still a museum, and at the Deal Maritime Museum at Deal, Kent but the majority of finds are displayed at Ramsgate Maritime Museum. In 2000 a team of divers successfully recovered a Demi-cannon, complete with it's original gun carriage from the site.

Designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act on 6 June 1980.