HMS St George was a 98-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 October 1785 at Portsmouth. In 1793 she captured one of the richest prizes ever. She then participated in the Naval Battle of Hyères Islands in 1795 and took part in the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. She wrecked off Jutland in 1811 with the loss of almost all her crew.
In 1793 Captain John Gell was appointed a Rear-Admiral of the Blue and raised his flag on the St George. While in the Mediterranean with his division of the fleet, Gell was able to seize a French privateer and its Spanish-registered prize the St Jago. These ships were said to be some of the most valuable prizes ever brought to England. The ownership of the St Jago was a matter of some debate and was not settled until 4 February 1795, when the value of the cargo was put at £935,000 (equivalent to £ in). At this time all the crew, captains, officers and admirals could expect to share in this prize. Admiral Hood's share was £50,000 (equivalent to £ in). The ships that conveyed St Jago to Portsmouth were St George,,,, and .[1]
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.[2]
St George was present at the Naval Battle of Hyères Islands in 1795. In 1798, some of her crew were court-martialed for mutiny.[3]
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.[4] In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Copenhagen 1801" to all remaining survivors of the battle.
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.
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.[5] 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.
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.
The report from Commander Pater to the Admiralty, as well as two notes signed by the officers on Cressy (available at the National Maritime Museum, London, but also in Danish translation in Jepsen, 1993) describe the difficulties that also Cressy faced during the storm. The first letter was presented to Pater at 9 PM on December 23 and states that they find it an absolute necessity to try saving the ship by setting sail and turning away from the coast. Implicitly this meant that they would leave St. George (and the vice admiral) to their own fate.The second note, delivered to Pater at 10:45 PM, gives a description of the situation on St. George after they had turned and passed her, stating that her bow was heading east-north-east, most likely because the condition of the rudder prevented her from changing from port tack to starboard tack (meaning that St. George was inevitably heading for the coast) and they strongly advised the commander to set as many sails as possible to save Cressy, given that they were unable to assist St. George in any way. Undoubtedly, Pater was very well aware of the dire situation himself, as evidenced by his report to the Admiralty, where he writes that he knew already at 3 PM that St. George could not be saved. The only explanation for his hesitation to change course and save Cressy seems a reluctance to leave the vice admiral without his permission. The same reluctance seems the only explanation as to why Defence did not change course and ended up wrecked on the beach.
There is uncertainty about the number of survivors. Some sources state that only seven of her 738 crew were saved but other sources say 11, or most likely 12, citing the official journals from the interrogations of the survivors. One survivor, William Watson, stated that he was an American citizen and had been pressed to serve on board. He, and two other Americans, who survived from Defence, expressed a clear desire to not return to England or further serve in the Royal Navy. Over the following two weeks nearly 1,400 drowned men from St. George and Defence washed up on the beach south of the wrecks. The dead included Reynolds and Guion. Their bodies were never found, despite considerable effort to find them among the dead. Most of the bodies that came ashore were buried in the sand dunes of Thorsminde, which have been known ever since as "Dead Men's Dunes".
The Danish authorities quickly ordered Lieutenant Wigelsen to the area as Receiver of Wreck.[8] Despite the fact that England 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 the double number of Danish prisoners of war in English prisons. 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.
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(by newspaper editor Vidar Bruun, translated from Danish)
roared the Westjutland Sea
Hundreds of young men of warfound in the dunes their graves
The stone raised to their memory
Guarded while centuries pass
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.[9]
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.