Loss of The Royal George by William Cowper

Loss of The Royal George by William Cowper

Toll for the brave
The Brave that are no more,
All sunk beneath the wave,
Fast by their native shore.

Eight hundred of the brave,
Whose courage was well tried,
Had made the vessel heel,
And laid her on her side.

A land breeze shook the shroud,
And she was overset,
Down went the Royal George,
With all her crew complete.

Toll for the brave!
Brave Kempenfelt is gone;
His last sea-fight is fought,
His work of glory done.

It was not in the battle;
No tempest gave the shock;
She sprang no fatal leak,
She ran upon no rock.

His sword was in its sheath,
His fingers held the pen,
When Kempenfelt went down
With twice four hundred men.

Weigh the vessel up
Once dreaded by our foes!
And mingle with our cup
The tears that England owes.

Her timbers yet are sound,
And she may float again
Full charged with England’s thunder,
And plough the distant main:

But Kempenfelt is gone,
His victories are o’er;
And he and his eight hundred
Shall plough the wave no more.

William Cowper (1731-1800)

The Royal George, flagship of Admiral Kempenfelt, sank on 29 August 1782 with the loss of eight hundred lives, including Admiral Kempenfelt himself.

The ship had been anchored off Spithead for repairs to a leak below the water line and was heeled to raise the leak above water. The starboard guns were run to the port side and it was during this procedure, that a loud crack was heard and the ship sank almost instantly.

Cowper wrote his poem in September 1782 at the request of Lady Austen, who wanted the words put to the march in Scipio. Of which Cowper noted

The tune laid me at a disadvantage, obliging me to write in Alexandrines which I suppose would suit no ear but a French one.In his poem Cowper gives over-heeling as the reason for the loss of the ship. However, a court martial that followed the disaster, ruled that it had been the result of serious structural failure. The redistribution of the cannon's weight on the ship's frame caused excessively decayed timbers of the hull to break. The finding was suppressed by the Admiralty and did not become generally known until well into the next century.