tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-342930056419073948.post7513965883787673116..comments2023-12-19T20:01:48.859+00:00Comments on Disaster history: Palestine number crunching + strange shipwreckJohn Withingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02208997907356282053noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-342930056419073948.post-32446428150414643162009-03-28T10:27:00.000+00:002009-03-28T10:27:00.000+00:00Right as ever JB - I wrote about the Royal George ...Right as ever JB - I wrote about the Royal George in A Disastrous History of Britain, but you've added some v interesting details. Of course, the Royal George found its bard too. The Eurydice had GM Hopkins, the George got William Cowper:"It was not in the battle/No tempest gave the shock/She sprang no fatal leak/She ran upon no rock" etc One of the unusual elements of this disaster was that the ship was packed with visitors when it went down.Disaster historianhttp://www.disasterhistorian.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-342930056419073948.post-41166829559402031712009-03-27T12:30:00.000+00:002009-03-27T12:30:00.000+00:00Great story, John, and having been born on the Isl...Great story, John, and having been born on the Isle of Wight, then living until school-leaving age in Portsmouth, I probably looked out on The Solent more than any landscape since.<BR/><BR/>Like most stretches of sheltered water, it has its moments of pure shocking nastiness and even when in a state of placid repose strange things happen.<BR/><BR/>We used to go occasionally to a maritime art gallery on Sunday afternoons, Cumberland House in Southsea, and the picture that I remember most vividly showed a massive warship of the 1780s, The Royal George, in fine clear weather, just about to capsize and sink with a huge loss of life. This was the result of a catastrophic combination of bad decisions; the ship was being 'leaned' to replace a stop-cock, guns were shifted and the men to oversee this properly were ashore in Pompey...<BR/><BR/>Apparently, the Solent, being a fairly narrow channel, even on a windless day, can produce quite a choppy sea, and water was splashing into the open gun-ports.<BR/><BR/>Apart from the death toll of about a thousand, and the massive cover-ups to protect the Senior Ranks – The Navy Board, often tainted with corruption, was the scapegoat then – it's sobering to reflect on the amount of wood it took to build a battleship then; over 3,000 trees (!) at a cost of over £300,000. In Georgian pounds, too.<BR/><BR/>My dad told me they found skeletons when excavating Ryde canoe lake about a hundred years later.<BR/><BR/>I don't know why I'm writing this; you've probably got it much better documented in one of your books. Actually disasters caused by bungs, backhanders, shoddy practice and greed would be a timely tome.Johnny Bullhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03025464373041140890noreply@blogger.com