Wreck of British Warship Off Florida Coast Recognized as HMS Tyger That Sank in 1742

Final week, the Nationwide Park Service introduced that its archeologists have recognized the stays of HMS Tyger, an 18th-century British warship, throughout the boundaries of Dry Tortugas Nationwide Park, off the south coast of Florida. Inbuilt 1647, the fourth-rate, 50-gun frigate sunk in 1742 after it ran aground on the reefs of the Dry Tortugas whereas on patrol within the Warfare of Jenkins Ear between Britain and Spain. The stays of the historic shipwreck had been first positioned in 1993, however now new analysis has uncovered definitive proof of the identification of the sunken ship.

From the Nationwide Park Service press launch:

Utilizing leads from historic analysis, archeologists from Dry Tortugas Nationwide Park, the Submerged Assets Middle, and the Southeast Archeological Middle surveyed the location in 2021 and located 5 cannons roughly 500 yards from the primary wreck web site. Buried within the margins of the previous logbooks was a reference that described how the crew “lightened her ahead” after initially working aground, briefly refloating the vessel after which sinking in shallow water.

Based mostly on their dimension, options and site, the weapons had been decided to be British six and nine-pound cannons thrown overboard when HMS Tyger first ran aground. This discovery and reevaluation of the location led archeologists to make a sound argument that the wreck first positioned in 1993 was actually the stays of HMS Tyger. The findings had been not too long ago revealed within the Worldwide Journal of Nautical Archaeology.

“Archeological finds are thrilling, however connecting these finds to the historic document helps us inform the tales of the folks that got here earlier than us and the occasions they skilled,” mentioned Park Supervisor James Crutchfield. “This explicit story is one in all perseverance and survival. Nationwide parks assist to guard these untold tales as they arrive to gentle.”

After HMS Tyger wrecked, the roughly 300 members of the crew endured 66 days marooned on what’s at this time Backyard Key. They erected the primary fortifications on the island, greater than 100 years earlier than Fort Jefferson, which now dominates the island and is the principal cultural useful resource throughout the park.

The stranded survivors battled warmth, mosquitoes and thirst whereas trying to flee the abandoned island. They constructed vessels from salvaged items of the wrecked HMS Tyger and made a number of makes an attempt to hunt assist, collect further provides and find Spanish naval vessels within the space. After a failed assault on a Spanish vessel, the surviving crew burned the stays of Tyger to make sure its weapons didn’t fall into enemy palms and used their makeshift vessels to make a 700-mile (1,125 km) escape via enemy waters to Port Royal, Jamaica.

Whereas the location is routinely monitored and at present protected below cultural useful resource legal guidelines relevant to different websites inside Dry Tortugas Nationwide Park, constructive identification of HMS Tyger as a British naval vessel presents further safety below the Sunken Army Craft Act of 2004. The stays of HMS Tyger and its associated artifacts are the sovereign property of the British Authorities in accordance with worldwide treaty.

The same warship, HMS Fowey, was misplaced in what’s now Biscayne Nationwide Park in 1748 and is at present managed below a Memorandum of Settlement between the USA and the British Royal Navy.

“This discovery highlights the significance of preservation in place as future generations of archeologists, armed with extra superior applied sciences and analysis instruments, are in a position to reexamine websites and make new discoveries,” mentioned Josh Marano, the maritime archeologist who led the crew that made the invention.

March is Florida Archeology Month.

Because of Alaric Bond, David Rye and Andrew Reinbach for contributing to this publish.