History | |
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Name: | HMS Feversham |
Builder: | Thomas Ellis, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex |
Launched: | 1696 |
Fate: | Wrecked, 7 October 1711 |
General characteristics | |
Type: | Fifth rate |
Tons burthen: | 372 tons bm |
Length: | 107 ft (33 m) |
Beam: | 28 ft (8.5 m) |
Armament: | 32 guns |
HMS Feversham was a 32-gun fifth rate warship. She was built at Shoreham, England, in 1696 and between 1706 and 1707 was commanded by Galfridus Walpole. She was shipwrecked with the loss of 102 lives on 7 October 1711 during a voyage from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to New York City, after participating in Admiral Hovenden Walker's disastrous expedition to Quebec.
The wreck is at Scatterie Island, 20 miles from Louisbourg. The British made several unsuccessful attempts to salvage the ship immediately after her sinking. The wreck was finally located and identified in 1996. Treasure hunters recovered significant numbers of coins and , with the coins providing a rare and important example of what archaeologists call a merchant's hoard, a selection of everyday coins used to buy supplies. An exhibit about the wreck is on display at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia.