Background to the Site
HMS Invincible began life as the French warship L'Invincible and was launched at Rochefort, France, in 1744. With two decks, 74 guns, and a crew of 700 this was the elite fighting ship of the day. Such fire power could outmatch all but the largest three deck warships and was coupled with the speed and agility of much smaller vessels, making L'Invincible a far superior design. The introduction of the 74s became the backbone of the Fleet for over half a century and sixteen such vessels were present at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
In 1747 L'Invincible was escorting a French East India convoy to India that was intercepted by a British squadron led by Admiral Anson off the north coast of Spain. Though hopelessly outnumbered Captain St Georges' crew fought valiantly and L'Invincible was the last ship to strike its colours at the Battle of Cape Finisterre.
As a British prize, HMS Invincible was the flag ship of three Admirals, took part in two French wars and served as far away as the West Indies and Nova Scotia. Despite seeing little combat, the ship's powerful attributes meant that its fourteen year sailing career included a variety of roles from flagship to fast troop transport.
The Wreck
On February 19th 1758, Admiral Boscawen's fleet set sail from Portsmouth bound for Nova Scotia on a second attempt at taking the French fort of Louisbourg. Invincible was to take part in this successful mission, but never left the Solent. After a calamitous series of events the esteemed warship ran aground on Dean Sand and despite continuous attempts at refloating, the hull was flooded and fell over on the beam ends in gale force winds with seas breaking over the top.
After all that could be salvaged was retrieved Invincible settled into the sandbank and became entombed for the next 221 years. In 1979 a local fisherman, Arthur Mack, brought up some remarkable timbers after snagging his nets on a sandbank in the eastern Solent, and the site now known as Horse Tail was dived by local divers Jim Boyle and John Broomhead, and later by Commander John Bingeman.
The team successfully identified the extensive wreck and formed The Invincible Committee (1758) to research and excavate the site. In September 1980 HMS Invincible was designated as a Historic Shipwreck under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973.
The Archive Project
The vast quantity of documentary records associated with this site has not been readily accessible until recently. The Hampshire & Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund have been making this research archive publicly available by copying, sorting and digitising the great quantity of dive logs, site plans and artefact records and enabling public access on-line via the Archaeology Data Service (ADS). To learn more about the results of this work, please visit the Digital Archive pages and interactive site-viewer.
References & Further Reading
Fenwick, V. and Gale, A. 1998. Historic Shipwrecks. Discovered, Protected and Investigated. Stroud: Tempus.
Lavery, B. 1988. The Royal Navy's First Invincible. The ship, the wreck and the discovery. Portsmouth: Invincible Conservations (1744-1758) Ltd.