More information : DESIGNATED WRECK SITE - ANNE
Summary:
Possibly the ANNE, a Third Rate ship of the line lost at the Battle of Beachy Head, Rye Bay, in 1690.
Designation History:
Original Designation Order: June 20, 1974; 1974 No 7; 1974/910 Re-designated: March 23, 1992; 1992 No. 1; 1992/347 Protected Area: Area within 75m radius of National Grid Reference Co- ordinate 896133 on Ordnance Survey Map TQ81/91 or position 50 53.42'N, 00 41.91'E.
Licences issued: 1974 - 1975 Survey 1995 - Excavation 1996 - Excavation 1997 - Excavation
Visit by Government Diving Contractor: University of St Andrews - Archaeological Diving Unit (ADU) April 1986 - April 2003
1990, 1991, 1994, 1999
Reports: 90(065), 91(2), 91(8), 94(9)
Wessex Archaeology 1st May 2003 -
The site is now owned by the Nautical Museums Trust which now runs the Hastings Shipwreck Centre. (11)
Archaeological History:
The ANNE was severely damaged at the time of the Battle of Beachy Head.
Local residents took photographs of her in 1913.
She was discovered when the vessel was partly dug up with a mechanical excavator in early 1974, prompting a protection order to be rushed through. (1,2).
1974: A brief archaelogical survey was undertaken by Dr Peter Marsden.
1983 - 1994: Surveying at low tide to establish extent of the hull. (15)
1990: The site was visited by the Archaeological Diving Unit on three occasions during the year. Once by land, at low water neaps, which did not expose the site. The second visit on 08-JUN-1990 suggested that the site was not visible apart from at low water springs. The third visit was by RIB and a magnotometer survey revealed several small anomalies, however no archaeological material was seen, owing to poor visibility.
MAY/AUG-1991: The Archaeological Diving Unit visited the site at low water springs, accompanied by a local diver Mr E Perry. The site lies at the foot of the beach below the peat outcrops. A variety of structural elements were identified including frames, inner and outer planking, with the centre filled with sand.
JULY-1994: The Archaeological Diving Unit visited the site at at low water springs and the vessel could not be seen, indicating a rise in sand levels had buried the site.
1996-1997: Further detailed surveys of the visible structure of the ship. (15)
1997: Trial underwater excavation for the Warship Anne Trust by A Barak. (15)
26-SEPT-1999: The Archaeological Diving Unit visited the site in poor weather, and very little was achieved apart from a handheld magnetometer run, indicating a large concreted mass of iron near the stern.
Wreck Site, Environmental and Archaeological Remains:
The ship remains are sunk into a grey silty clay bed, situated in a lagoon created between two sandbanks. with mobile sand and silt in the vicinity. Sediment levels are unstable, varying significantly within short periods of time; the site was exposed to various heights in 1991, and completely covered by 1999. (15)
The remains are approximately 0.6 metres underwater and are exposed when the water level is low. The structural remains are surrounded by deep, fine mud, hampering movement across the site. (15)
The wreck is usually exposed by tides which are below 0.6m above chart datum (Dover). She lies in sand on a firm clay substrate on top of a prehistoric submerged forest. The lower 2m of the wreck survives comprising a ship-shaped outline of timbers, 43.5m long and protruding about 0.5m above sediments. Visible structural elements include frames, inner and outer planking and possible mast stumps. There is no marine growth on these timbers. (1)
Amongst the objects reported found are iron cannon balls, grenades, lead musket balls, fragments of wooden barrels, clay pipes, a spoon and a pewter plate. Of these the cannon balls, grenades, fragments of barrels and one musket ball were handed in to Portsmouth Museum. Objects discovered in the ANNE have now been deposited in Hastings Museum. (2)(15)
The site is deteriorating with serious degradation of timbers, particularly by marine borers at the bow and along the surviving top of each side. Also at the bow, a frame appears to have come adrift since its treenails were still projecting out of the planking below. Breaking waves twice a day are also responsible for pounding the timbers, and fishing nets have also been found snagged in the planking, pulling plank fastenings loose. (15)
In 1991 a disturbance at the shoreward end of the site was noted by the ADU, outboard of the structure, taking the form of a depression roughly 2 metres long, 1 metre wide, and 40 cm deep. The nearly vertical sides of the depression and its discrete nature suggests digging activity rather than natural scour. (15)
Wreck Event and Documentary Evidence:
Primary Sources:
Unsourced contemporary quotation, apparently from a primary source, stating the date of loss as Saturday 5th July:
"Saturday 5th July. . . This afternoon the ANNE Frigat was set on fire, we not being able to help her any longer after the French came up with her. She was ashore the day before in Rye Bay, and we have saved most of her trade except her guns which will be taken up again." (16)
A letter from the marquis de Villette-Mursay, dated at sea 15 July 1690, stated (translated from the original French by compiler):
'Five other vessels in a very bad way and of the same nation [Dutch], having passed Firley [Fairlight] and seeking to double back past Beachy Head, found me posted there, with the effect that they lost all hope, and ran ashore, and were set on fire in front of my eyes; at least there were four of which I am certain, and of the fifth, which was beyond Fairlight, in front of [or before] Rye, nothing could be seen but smoke. There is also a little English ship of 40 guns which has been wrecked on the coast.' (17)
Villette-Mursay's account appears to conflate the NOORT HOLLANT or NOORD HOLLAND fireship (1438085) with the account of the ANNE - the position being beyond Fairlight, but the number of guns more closely resembling those of the NOORT HOLLANT. (18)
July 6, London. The Marquis of Carmarthen to the King.
'Lord Devonshire and Lord Pembroke have returned from the fleet this afternoon and informed us of its being out of danger of any further prejudice from the French, it being probably arrived by this time at the Gunfleet and the French off Rye. Lord Nottingham tells me he sends you the copies of all our intelligences, by which you will find that, since the last accounts from hence, the Dutch have been forced to set fire to four more of their ships, as our men did also yesterday to the ANN, one of your third-rates, near Rye, in which place three of your fireships I fear will be forced to be burnt by our own men, the whole French fleet being now at anchor before the town.' (19)
Secondary Sources:
ANNE, Third Rate of 70 guns, 1051 tons BM, 151 x 40 feet, burnt 06-JUL-1690 at the Battle of Beachy Head. (3)
A 70-gun ship of the line launched in 1678 at Chatham, the ANNE formed an important part of Pepys' Restoration Navy; Pepys had encouraged the standardisation of classes and rates of warships and in 1667 the Government ordered the first 30 of the new standard ships, of which the ANNE was one. (5)
Built in 1678 with an armament of 26 x 32 pounders (demi-cannon) on the main deck, 26 x 12 pounders on the upper deck , 10 x 6 pounders (sakers) on the quarter-deck, 4 similar weapons on the forecastle and 4 x 3 pounders on the poop (2)(3)(9)
She was lost during the war between France and England; two years earlier James II had fled England to be replaced by William of Orange and his wife Mary. He had long been an enemy of Louis XIV and the French King took the opportunity to take up the exiled King's cause.
Her captain was a John Tyrrell in charge of a crew of 460 men and they went into battle with the rest of the English and Dutch ships against a superior French fleet on Monday, 30 June 1690. During the Battle of Beachy Head, as it is known, she was badly damaged and subsequently beached at high water so that the crew could walk ashore at low water. The next day she was fired to stop the French capturing her in Rye Bay. According to a contemporary pamphlet, the ANNE was set on fire on the 5th July, (quoted above under primary sources, but which remains unsourced).
Indexed as the ANN. Following the major fleet engagement off Beachy Head in the English Channel, between the Anglo-Dutch fleet and the French, the allied fleet retired from the Channel towards the Nore. In the action the ANN had been completely dismasted, and to avoid capture she was deliberately run ashore near Rye, Sussex. The French, seeing her plight, sent two fireships inshore to complete her destruction, but Captain Tyrell forestalled them by setting her alight as he left. (8)
Date of loss given as 06-JUL-1690, and indexed as the ANN. (9)
A victim of the Battle of Beachy Head of 1690. Part of a combined English and Dutch fleet under the Earl of Torrington, who had 56 ships, they faced a French fleet commanded by the Comte de Tourville, with 70 ships. The French fleet had sailed from Brest with the intention of blockading the Thames, and were engaged by the Dutch at 8am, the French attacking in a crescent-moon formation. The ANNE was closely engaged by 9.30am, although she did not open fire until within musket-shot of the enemy. At 2pm, the breeze dropped and the ANNE, along with other English ships, was becalmed, and by 4pm was so riddled with shot that she had to be towed away from the fleet. Next day, Torrington retreated, the English and Dutch having lost seven ships, the French none. The ANNE was taken in tow again, the French ships closing in, sensing an easy kill. The ANNE was finally run ashore near the hamlet of Pett Level and set on fire. (9)
ANNE, burnt after action 1690. 150 ft 10 inches x 40 ft 3 inches, 1061 tons. (10)
ANNE, of 70 guns, Third Rate with two decks. 06-JUL-1690 run ashore and burnt at Pett Levels, Rye Bay - after being heavily damaged at the Battle of Beachy Head - to avoid capture by the French. Remains still visible at extreme low tide. (11)
'On 30 June 1690, the English and Dutch, under Lord Torrington, fought Count Tourville off Beachy Head, and lost the battle, the allied fleet being seen in retreat from Rye. A dismasted man-of-war, the ANNE, was run ashore off Pett Level, and fired by her captain to avoid capture, the crew being brought into Rye, where there was much panic . . . ' (16)
NB: It should be noted that dates for the loss of the vessel vary between 4th-7th of July due to contradictions in the accounts of the battle and its aftermath.
Built: 1678 (2)(3)(5)(8)(9)(10)(11) Builder: Chatham Dockyard (2)(3)(5)(8)(9)(10) [Phineas Pett, Chatham Dockyard] (11) Armament: 70 cannon (2)(5)(8)(9)(10) Commanding Officer: Capt. John Tyrrell RN (8)(9 Crew: 460 (9) Owner: Royal Navy [all sources]
Date of Loss Qualifier: Actual date of loss |