HMS Astraea (1791)

HMS "Astraea" was a 32-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy wrecked on May 23, 1808 off the coast of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands. She saw action in the American War of Independence and later made her claim to fame by capturing the larger French frigate "Gloire" in a battle in 1795.

In 1808, under the command of Captain Edmund Heywood, having escorted a mail packet ship past the danger of Caribbean privateers, the "Astraea", thinking that Anegada was Puerto Rico, came upon the deadly horseshoe reef. As was usually the case in the Royal Navy, Captain Heywood was court martialled. The court martial was held on HMS "Ramillies" in Carisle Bay, Barbados on 11th June, 1808. The court held that the ship foundered due to an "extraordinary weather current," and Captain Heywood was exonerated. [The court martial held:"... having heard the narrative thereof by Captain Edmund Heywood, together with explanations given by himself and also by Mr. Allan McLean, the master of the said ship, and having fully completed the inquiry, and maturely and deliberately weighed and considered the whole thereof, the court is of opinion that the loss was occasioned by an extraordinary weather current having set the ship nearly two degrees to the eastwards of the reckoning of all the officers on board ... and that no blame is attributable to Captain Heywood, his officers, and ships company"] All but four of the crew were saved.

Honoured on a BVI stamp, HMS "Astraea" was later rediscovered in 1967 by Bert Kilbride and some items salvaged, but not the heavy cannon. The rugged reef conditions still remain treacherous, and as a result, tourists are rarely able to dive the wreck today.

External links

*Colledge
* [http://www.blytmann.com/astrea/astrea.htm Blytmann's comprehensive site dedicated to HMS Astrea]
* [http://www.bviwelcome.com/articles/shipwrecks/ Famous BVI Shipwrecks]

Footnotes