HMS Royal George (1756)

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For other ships with the same name, see HMS Royal George.

HMS Royal George was a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She sank at Spithead on 29 August 1782 with the loss of more than 800 lives.

She was laid down at the Woolwich Dockyard in 1746 as Royal Anne and renamed Royal George before being launched on 18 February 1756. At her launch she was the largest warship in the world. She served in the Seven Years' War, joining the Western Squadron or Channel Fleet under Admiral Sir Edward Hawke, spending most of 1759 in the blockade of the French fleet at Brest. In early November of that year, when Hawke's flagship Ramillies went into dock for repairs, Hawke shifted his flag to the Royal George, which became his flagship just in time for the Battle of Quiberon Bay on 20 November 1759 where she sank the French ship Superbe.

She was laid up from 1763 to 1778, when she was recommissioned to serve in the American War of Independence. In January 1780, while serving in the Channel Fleet, she took part in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1780).

On 28 August 1782, Royal George, under the command of Richard Kempenfelt, was preparing to sail with a fleet commanded by Admiral Richard Howe to Gibraltar. The ships were anchored at Spithead to take on supplies. Royal George was being heeled at an angle to allow for minor repairs below the waterline, while rum casks were being loaded aboard at the same time. It is believed that during these operations the lower deck gunports were not properly secured, causing an inrush of water. The ship rolled over rapidly and sank, taking with her around 800 people, including up to 300 women and 60 children who were visiting the ship in harbour.

A court martial failed to attribute blame and acquitted the officers and crew (many of whom had perished), blaming the accident on the "general state of decay of her timbers."

The incident remains the worst single peace time disaster in the history of the British Royal Navy.

The wreck of the Royal George was investigated in one of the earliest uses of surface supplied diving techniques. The wreck, which was close to the site of the Mary Rose, was destroyed with explosives in the early 1840s.