Qualla: English ship Dartmouth (1655)

English ship Dartmouth (1655): Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 9 October 1690, the Dartmouth dropped anchor in the Sound of Mull and waited for a storm to pass. She had been sent, with two smaller ships, to persuade the MacLeans of Duart to swear loyalty to William III and Mary II, an errand that had not yet begun. The weather worsened. The anchor dragged. The ship was driven onto the rocks at Eilean Rudha an Ridire and broke up, taking most of her crew with her, including her commanding officer Edward Pottinger. She had been at sea for 35 years and seen three major wars. None of them killed her. A bad night in a Hebridean strait did.

English ship Dartmouth (1655): Built by Tippetts

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Master Shipwright John Tippetts launched the Dartmouth at Portsmouth Dockyard on 22 September 1655. She was one of six fifth-rates ordered by the Commonwealth of England on 28 December 1654, all built in the state dockyards under the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. The ship carr...

English ship Dartmouth (1655): Three Wars, Three Decades

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In April 1666, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Dartmouth captured three Dutch armed merchant ships off the coast of Ireland in company with a larger fourth-rate frigate and the 12-gun Little Gift. On 28 May 1672 she took part in the Battle of Solebay, the opening engagemen...

English ship Dartmouth (1655): Derry, July 1689

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The most consequential moment of the Dartmouth's career came two months later. The town of Derry in northern Ireland was under siege by supporters of the deposed James II, defended by Irish Protestants supporting William III. Major-General Percy Kirke commanded a relief force sai...

English ship Dartmouth (1655): The Wreck and What Came After

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The storm in the Sound of Mull on 9 October 1690 ended the Dartmouth's career on rocks she could not have anticipated. The site lay undisturbed for 283 years. In 1973 divers from Bristol discovered the wreck on the north coast of Eilean Rudha an Ridire, a small island in the Soun...