Chequered history of the Invincible

A 74-gun warship, she came to grief on Sunday February 19 1758 off Portsmouth while sailing as part of the expedition to besiege the French Fortress of Louisbourg, Nova Scotia.

It was a black day for the Navy - but two centuries later her wreck is proving a rich source of fascination.

When Invincible foundered, she was a British ship-of-the-line fully equipped for an expedition abroad. Although her guns and much of her equipment were salvaged at the time, she was subsequently abandoned with a considerable amount of equipment still onboard.

In the years since her rediscovery by fishermen in 1979, she has slowly given up many of her secrets.

It's a story told by John M Bingeman, of Chichester, in his new book The First HMS Invincible (1747'“58): Her Excavations (1980'“1991), published by Oxbow Books Ltd.

After her discovery, it was Mr Bingeman who applied for a Government Protection Order and subsequently identified the ship as the Royal Navy's first Invincible.

History tells us that she came to grief at the beginning of a progressive series of military operations leading to the eventual colonisation of Canada. Brought into British service when she was only three years old, she was the first newly-designed 74-gun warship to be captured from the French.

Her significance was that she represented a significant step forward in ship construction and ultimately the prototype for a new generation of British men-of-war.

Sadly, as Mr Bingeman says: "She got stranded on a sandbank two and a half miles east of the Mary Rose. She drew 23 feet of water at low water at the site where you have got 18 feet of water, which caused her to become stranded.

"The gales came up and she was blown over on her beam end and she dug her own grave. The Mary Rose did similarly."

The ship's crew was 700 and she had another 100 army on board. All survived. But following her loss, her Captain John Bentley was court-martialled - and acquitted.

"The Admiralty asked the President of the Board how it was possible for no one to be blameable - that was the word - when she got wrecked only three miles from the entrance of Portsmouth Harbour."

But maybe it was more a case of bad luck, than blame: "It was quite a saga. At first, the anchor would not come up. There were very nearly 400 men on the capstans. She had four capstans and she had 96 men on each. They were straining away trying to pull the anchor up. Eventually when they managed to break the anchor free, by a fluke it struck the ship."

Tragically, it was already a weakened ship, having been nearly wrecked on a first, abortive mission to oust the French in Nova Scotia. She'd been forced to sail back with a temporary mast and was partially repaired in Portsmouth. Consequently she wasn't at her best.

"But the Captain was very keen to go on with the expedition, and so when she ran aground on the sandbank the hull was very weak."

As a result, it flooded all the quicker.

"Salvage operations went on for about six months. She was now beneath the surface and was forgotten about until 1979 when a fisherman snagged her."

About a quarter of the port side is still below the seabed. The other structures of the ship were scattered.

"But we have 11,479 artefacts from the 11 years of the excavations. There are some in the Royal Naval Museum and there are some in the Royal Marines Museum, but the majority is at the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust."

It's a tale Mr Bingeman tells in his book, but as comprehensive as it is, Mr Bingeman knows that there are undoubtedly more secrets the wreck has yet to give up.

"What we have done over those 11 years of excavations is to excavate the coherent hull. There are also the detached timbers that are scattered to the north-east, but that would take a lot of work'¦"