The British shipwreck that changed the world

PO1 Tony Holland solid read/share my friend.

Two parallel reefs, much of which is submerged at high water, the Western Rocks posed a formidable threat to sailors bound for safe harbour in Tresco or St Mary's. And the names that each cluster of jagged granite has been given over the years – Inner Rags, Tearing Ledge – hint at the devastation wrought.

"It is doubtful if any collection of rocks in the whole of the British Isles has a worse reputation," said Richard Larn OBE, president of the International Maritime Archaeological & Shipwreck Society and author of Sea of Storms: Shipwrecks of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. "This immense area of hidden danger has been the setting for the worst of the many wreck disasters on Scilly." None, though, have been more tragic, nor played a more significant role in history, than the sinking of the Association in the early years of the 18th Century.
In the early 18th Century, there was no accurate way of determining a ship's exact longitude (its east–west position) at sea. Sailors used a process called "dead reckoning", measuring speed, direction and distance to estimate their location. But it was an educated guess at best. Shovell and his officers knew they were aligned with the English Channel but could never have known which side of the Scillies they were.

??????????? So Brownie pasted the article for her comment??? Anyway, very interesting article. I wonder what one of those original watches is worth?