Sir Cloudesley Shovell (c. November, 1650 – 22 October or 23 October 1707), English admiral, was baptised at Cockthorpe in Norfolk, in 1650. Rising through the officer ranks he became a popular British hero, whose celebrated naval career was brought to an end in a disastrous shipwreck in the Isles of Scilly. Member of Parliament for Rochester, Kent, from 1695 until his death.

Spelling of his name

There are many different versions used for the spelling of both his Christian name and surname. He used the spelling Cloudesley Shovell in his will written on 20 April 1701 when he was fifty. Both his father and his widow also spelt their surname as Shovell in their wills. The Christian name Cloudesley was often indistinctly signed which may have given rise to variety of spellings used by subsequent biographers. Nonetheless, spellings such as Cloudisley and Shovel are occasionally seen in books and articles on him.

Life in the Royal Navy

Shovell went to sea as a cabin boy under the care of his kinsman Sir Christopher Myngs.

He set himself to study navigation, and, owing to his able seamanship and brave and open-hearted disposition, became a general favourite and obtained quick promotion. In 1674 he served as lieutenant under Sir John Narborough in the Mediterranean, where he burned four men-of-war under the castles and walls of Tripoli, belonging to the pirates of that place. He was present as captain of HMS Edgar (70 guns) at the first fight at Bantry Bay, and shortly afterwards was knighted.

In 1690 he convoyed William III across St George's Channel to Ireland; the same year he was made Rear-Admiral of the Blue, and was present at the Battle of Beachy Head on July 10. In 1692 he was appointed Rear Admiral of the Red, and joined Admiral Russell, under whom he greatly distinguished himself at La Hougue, by being the first to break through the enemy's line. Not long after, when Admiral Russell was superseded, Shovel was put in joint command of the fleet with Admiral Killigrewand Sir Ralph Delaval. In 1702 he brought home the spoils of the French and Spanish fleets from Vigo, after their capture by Sir George Rooke, and in 1704 he served under Sir George Rooke in the Mediterranean and cooperated in the taking of Gibraltar.

In January 1704 he was named Rear-Admiral of England, and shortly afterwards commander-in-chief of the British fleets. He co-operated with the Earl of Peterborough in the capture of Barcelona in 1705, and commanded the naval part of the unsuccessful attempt on Toulon in October 1707. When returning with the fleet to England his ship, HMS Association, at 8pm on October 22 (November 2, by the modern calendar), struck on the rocks near the Isles of Scilly along with several other ships, and was seen by those on board HMS St George to go down in three or four minutes' time, not a soul being saved of 800 men that were on board. In total, 1,400 sailors were lost from his squadron.

The body of Sir Cloudesley Shovell was cast ashore next day, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The Council of the Scilly Isles commemorated the three-hundredth anniversary of the disaster in 2007.

Legends of the disaster

It is said that he was alive, at least barely, when he reached the shore at Porthellick Cove, but was murdered by a woman for the sake of his priceless emerald ring. The murder came to light many years later when the woman, on her deathbed, confessed his murder to a clergyman and produced the stolen ring which was returned to Shovell's heirs.

It is also said that a common sailor on his ship tried to warn them that they were off course, either because he was a native of the Scilly Isles and knew a distinct smell of the land or he had been keeping his own log (which is a variant appearing in the late 19th century), but Shovell had him hanged at the yardarm for inciting mutiny. While it is not at all unlikely that a sailor might have debated the vessel's location and feared for its fate (such debates were common upon entering the English Channel as noted by Samuel Pepys in 1684), there is no evidence that the man was hanged in contemporary documents. Regardless, assuming this sailor did exist and was not hanged, he was equally dead by drowning with the rest of the crew of the Association a few hours later.

Longitude

The disastrous wrecking of the fleet in home waters brought great consternation to the nation. Clearly, something better than dead reckoning was needed to navigate in dangerous waters. This led to the Longitude Act in 1714 which offered a large prize for anyone who could find a method of determining longitude accurately at sea. After many years the consequence of the prize was that accurate marine chronometers were produced and the lunar distance method was developed, both of which became used throughout the world for navigation at sea.

It is not certain that the navigational error leading to the shipwrecks was purely one of longitude as reported in the newspapers at the time. Some have argued that the wreck was caused more by an error in latitude than longitude. William May points out that the position of the Scillies themselves was not known accurately in either longitude or latitude. In addition, his analysis of the 40 extant logbooks from the 21 ships in the fleet do not show the error in longitude to be a significant factor compared to latitude.

Politician and benefactor

Shovell also served as MP for the city of Rochester in Kent from 1695 until his death. During that time he was a great benefactor to the city, providing at his own expense the fine decorated plaster ceilings in the Guildhall and the market bell, clock and decorated brick facade for the Butchers' Market, (now the Corn Exchange). All these gifts survive, except the clock which, by 1771, had deteriorated so badly that a replacement was installed by Rochester Corporation. Shovell was also Commissioner of the Sewers, responsible for the upkeep of the embankments of the Thames between Deptford and Gravesend. From 1694 Shovell's home was May Place in Crayford, and he was responsible for the restoration of the parish church, St. Paulinus.

Family

The unusual Christian name of Cloudesley was derived from his maternal grandmother, who was Lucy Cloudisley daughter of Thomas Cloudisley. His father, John Shovel a gentleman, died in 1653 when Cloudesley was three. He left £100 to each of three sons, Nathaniel, Thomas and Cloudesley. Cloudesley's widowed mother, Anne Jenkinson, remarried to John Flaxman.

Cloudesley married Elizabeth Hill and had two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne. Elizabeth married first the first Baron Romney whilst Ann married John Blackwood.

Paul Showell is one of a few living relatives of Sir Cloudesley. Paul is a professional musician, pianist, flautist and vocal coach, working and living in London (south east).

References

• Life and Glorious Actions of Sir Cloudesley Shovl (1707); Burnet's Own Times; various discussions in Notes and Queries, 5th series, vols. x. and xi.; and TH Cooke, Shipwreck of Sir Cloudesley Shovel (1883).
• Memoirs of Sir Cloudesley Shovel, Knt. Rear-Admiral of England, Etc. From Lives of the Admirals by John Campbell, Publ. 1744. public domain transcript
• The murder of a naval hero, Memories page, Medway News, by Stephen Rayner, 9 September 2005.
• Sir Cloudesley Shovell: Stuart Admiral, by Simon Harris, Spellmount 2000. ISBN 1-86227-099-6
• John B. Hattendorf, "Sir George Rooke and Sir Cloudesley Shovell" in Peter Le Fevre and Richard Harding, eds. Precursors of Nelson: British admirals of the eighteenth century. London: Chatham, 2000.

External links

• A Biographical Memoir of Sir Cloudesly Shovel Originally printed in the March, 1815, issue of The Naval Chronicle
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article by John B. Hattendorf, ‘Shovell, Sir Cloudesley (bap. 1650, d. 1707)’, Oxford University Press, 2004 , accessed 14 May 2007