What connects the American War of Independence with a seafaring tragedy off the Norfolk coast?
HMS Invincible was a Royal Navy ship launched from Deptford in 1765. And for several decades she lived up to her valiant name, serving in several British-American battles including Cape St Vincent in 1780 and the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781. She was also present at the Glorious First of June, a 1794 naval conflict between Britain and France.
Back in British waters, on 16th March 1801 HMS Invincible sailed from Great Yarmouth. Rear-Admiral Thomas Totty was aboard with Captain John Rennie, recently appointed to his first command, and almost 600 men. On her way to join the Baltic Fleet which was under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker and Admiral Nelson. But a strong tide and wild wind forced HMS Invincible off-course and she hit Hammond Knoll, a treacherous sandbank near Happisburgh Sands.
Throughout a terrifying night the crew fought to save the ship. Only The Nancy, a fishing smack, came to help. Admiral Totty loaded her with the youngest crew members and she stood by, desperate to rescue the rest. But as the sun rose, Invincible went down. Almost 400 men drowned, including Captain Rennie. In coming days their bodies washed up on the Happisburgh shore and were piled into carts. In 1998 their mass grave was discovered at Happisburgh Church. Now marked by a memorial stone it quotes Revelation 20:13 ‘And the sea gave up the dead that were in it’.
