HMS St George (1785)

In 1793 Captain John Gell was appointed a Rear-Admiral of the Blue and raised his flag on the St George. In October 1793 Gell was able to obtain the surrender of the French frigate , which had abused the neutrality of the port of Genoa. After this Gell had to return to England for the last time due to ill health. St George was present at the Battle of the Hyères Islands in 1795. In 1798, some of her crew were court-martialed for mutiny. The ship took part in the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, flying Horatio Nelson's flag. He transferred to before the battle, as it was better suited for the shallow waters; St George remained in the background during the fighting. Her captain was Thomas Masterman Hardy, future captain of under Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. Captain Sir William Bolton earned his promotion to Commander after his service on the St George in this battle, on 2 April 1801. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Copenhagen 1801" to all remaining survivors of the battle. == Last voyage and loss ==

After the bombardment of Copenhagen in September 1807 and the capture of the Royal Danish Fleet followed the Gunboat War between Denmark/Norway and the United Kingdom. As a consequence of the war, convoys of merchant ships were escorted through Danish waters by British navy ships in order to protect the merchant ships from attacks by Danish and Norwegian privateers. St. George took part in the convoys and was therefore in the Baltic Sea in autumn 1811, where her last voyage started. Convoy and first wreckage The events leading up to the loss of St. George are recorded by several sources. Most important is a letter by sergeant on St. George William Galey, written to his wife and dated Gothenburg, 2 December 1811. Another key source is the ship's log of HMS Cressy, led by Commander Charles Dudley Pater. escorted St. George until hours before the fatal stranding on the coast of Jutland. • 1 November 1811. The last convoy of the year bound for Great Britain leaves Hanöbukten at Karlshamn. The convoy consist of 129 merchant ships, escorted by Royal Navy ships of the line and brigs under the command of Vice Admiral James Saumarez on HMS Victory and Rear Admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds on St. George. Other participating ships of the line were HMS Orion, HMS Hero, HMS Defence and HMS Dreadnought. A storm forces the convoy to turn around. • 9 November. The convoy leaves Hanö again and pass the German island of Rügen. • 12 November. and the brig HMS Bellette leaves Rostock and joins the convoy east of Fehmarn. A heavy storm forces the ships to anchor at Rødsand, a sandy shoal south of Lolland, Denmark. Many merchant ships were damaged in the storm and 12 are lost completely. • 15 November. St. George collides with another ship and sails aground at Rødsand. All masts and the rudder are lost. St. George is freed from the shoal after 30 hours and fitted with jury rig and rudder, made from timber obtained from . The rudder was of the type devised by Thomas Pakenham. • 21 November. The convoy leaves Rødsand. St. George is towed by Cressy. • 1 December. The convoy arrives at the Swedish island Vinga, in the archipelago outside Gothenburg. St. George arrives the following day and undergoes further repairs. Saumarez has grave concerns about allowing St. George to continue, but Rear Admiral Reynolds and Daniel Oliver Guion, captain on St. George, maintain that St. George is able to make the journey across the North Sea. North Sea and stranding The days leading up to the stranding are documented by Commander Pater's log on Cressy and in greater detail in a classified report written by Pater to the Admiralty and a personal letter to his friend, Commander Lukin (documents at the National Maritime Museum, London; available in Danish translation in Jepsen, 1993). The stranding itself is documented through eyewitness accounts from the few survivors and spectators on the beach and are preserved through official reports from Danish authorities and local newspapers. Despite the fact that Britain was at war with Denmark-Norway and the survivors thus were prisoners of war, they were treated well by the locals and the authorities. They were relatively quickly returned to England, in exchange for double the number of Danish prisoners of war in British custody. The Danish Government promptly informed the Admiralty about the disaster and expressed their deepest empathy with what is still today the greatest loss of lives for the Royal Navy. ==Postscript==

A memorial was raised on the Dead Men's Dunes in 1937, initiated by the Danish press and originally suggested by the Danish vice admiral H. Rechnitzer and head of the search and rescue, V. Fabricius. The memorial consists of three stones with the following inscription on the back of the main store, facing the sea: Under Christmas in enduring days roared the Westjutland Sea Hundreds of young men of war found in the dunes their graves The stone raised to their memory Guarded while centuries pass (by newspaper editor Vidar Bruun, translated from Danish) St Georges ship's bell was recovered in 1876 and served as church bell in the church of No near Ringkøbing until May 2011. In May of that year the church renovated its bell tower and consequently presented the bell to the Strandingsmuseum St. George in Thorsminde. Following the exposure of the wreck of St George by a storm in 1981, thousands of artefacts have been recovered from the wreck, many of which are on display at the Strandingsmuseum St George. ==See also==