A Narrative of the Loss of the Royal George

Item Details

Portsmouth, John Miller, Jun., 1840, Wooden Boards

First Edition, Very Good

Scarce first edition with the wooden boards being made from recovered timber from the wreck. Leather spine with "Relic of the Royal George" in gilt. 16mo. [ii] 80pp (2) with three engraved plates and engraved frontispiece of Rear Admiral Richard Kempenfelt. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Binding fully intact. Pages unmarked. Very good.

H.M.S. Royal George was a ship of the line of the Royal Navy and was the largest warship in the world at the time of her launch on 18 February 1756. After seeing service in the Seven Years war and the American War of Independence she sank during planned minor repairs in home waters off Spithead, Portsmouth in 1782. An estimated 1200 people were aboard the ship at the time including up to 300 women and 60 children who were visiting the ship in harbour. Only 255 people were saved, including eleven women and one child.