1. Homepage
2. Life of Henry Cort
3. Cort's processes in iron manufacture
4. Cort's patents
5. Refutation of allegations of conspiracies against Cort
6. Adam Jellicoe's death
7. Henry Cort's birth
8. A navy agent's business
9. Early life of John Becher
10. Attwick & Burges families
11. "Cortship" of second wife
12. Thomas Morgan
13. Henry Cort's hoops contract
14. 1856 Accolade
15. Generosity of friends 1789-94
16. James Watson
17. Illness of Cort's son
18. Main sources of information
19. Contemporary sources
20. Navy sources
21. Chancery files
22. Publications about Cort
23. Assessment of Cort's character
24. Images of Henry Cort

25. Impeach-tranferred to 05

26. Parliamentary inquiry 1811-2
27. The furore of the 1850s
28. Society of Arts
29. Cort's first marriage
30. Henry Cort's children
31. Cort family pensions
32. Henry Cort's Hertfordshire property
33. 1791 signatories
34. Guiana and the Cort-Gladstone connection
35. Cort's twilight years
36. Memorials to Henry Cort


37. Smelting of iron
38. Fining before Cort
39. Shropshire & Staffordshire ironmasters
40. Cumbrians: Wilkinson etc
41. Early works at Merthyr Tydfil
42. The Crowley business
43. London ironmongers
44. Scottish iron
45. Cort's promotion efforts 1783-6
46. Later Merthyr connections
47. Puddling after Henry Cort


48. Gosport in Cort's day
49. Gosport administration
50. Gosport worthies
51. The Amherst-Porter network
52. James Hackman, murderer
53. Samuel Marshall
54. Samuel Jellicoe's legacy
55. Links with Titchfield
56. Links with Fareham


57. Fact, error and conjecture
58. 18th century politics
59. Law in the 18th century
60. 18th century finance
61. Religion and sexual mores
62. Calendar change of 1752
63. Shelburne, Parry and associates
64. John Becher's family
65. The Becher-Thackeray lineage
66. Thomas Lyttelton: a fantastic narrative
67. Eighteenth-century London
68. Abolition and the Corts
69. The Burges will tangle


70. Navy connections
71. Navy agent's business
72. Cort's clients
73. Ships' pursers
74. History of Adam Jellicoe
75. Dundas & Trotter
76. Cort's navy office associates
77. Toulmin & other agents
78. Sandwich & Middleton
79. The Arethusa
80. John Becher's war
81. Thomas Morgan's war
82. The 1782 Jamaica convoy
83. Sinking of the Royal George

84. Rickman & Scott: two contrasting naval careers-Missing



85. Visitors 2006-2009
86. Developement of the site 2006-2009

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87. Daniel Guion and family
88. Extremely bad academic work and extremely bad journalism

Sinking of the Royal George

By August 1782 the war has effectively petered out. But tragedy strikes, apparently by accident, on the twenty-ninth.

The "bottom falling out" story is a popular myth, apparently based on evidence given to the subsequent court martial by Admiral Milbanke and Captain Jervis.

An official investigation will later find that a sudden squall heeled the ship over.

Neither version squares with a document held in the National Maritime Museum, purporting to be an eye-witness account "by James Ingram, aged 25". Written several weeks after the event, it still rings true.

All accounts agree that the tragedy starts with the ship being careened to larboard (port): she is made to list by moving the starboard-side cannon towards the centre of the ship, and the larboard-side guns towards the edge. The purpose of this exercise is to ease access to an outside water-cock that needs replacing on the starboard side.

Ingram is quite sure that the job should have been done earlier, while the ship was higher in the water. Provisions have been loaded over the last few days, and her gun ports are barely above the surface. As soon as the ship is careened, water starts to wash in through the larboard ports.

Soon matters become more serious. The influx of water is both increasing the ship's list and pulling her down. The carpenter takes a message to the lieutenant of the watch: the ship needs to be righted, please give the order for the guns to be moved back. The message is ignored.

The message is repeated. This time the order is given, but by now the tilt is too great. Ingram describes how he and his superior struggle to roll one of the guns up the sloping deck. No use: the slope is rapidly increasing. He lets go of the gun, reaches for the porthole, and hauls himself through. Just in time.

As he hangs on desperately, the ship fills with water.

She sinks "in a moment", dragging him down. He hauls himself to the surface, clings to a barrel that has floated out. He is lucky.

For the people of Portsmouth and its surroundings, the impact must be devastating. So many of them have gone down, it is difficult to believe that Henry Cort's family is untouched by the tragedy.

Ingram's account contains one error. He gives the date as 19 August. All other accounts, including the Admiralty's minutes, say it was the 29th. The memory plays strange tricks.

After a few weeks, so many vivid details stick in the mind. But not the date.

The pages on this site are copied from the original site of Eric Alexander (henrycort.net) with his allowance.
Eric passed away abt 2012
If you use/copy information from this site, please include a link to the page where you found the information.