Superb English ONION WINE BOTTLE- Association shipwreck 1707 Isles of Scilly

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Superb English ONION WINE BOTTLE- Association shipwreck 1707 Isles of Scilly:
$448.61

This is a beautiful rare English Black Glass WINE or PORTER BOTTLE which is almost perfect . There is a tiny chip out the the top as you can see in the pictures but considering it was on the seabed for about 400 years it is miraculous that it survived at all . There are no cracks ! It was recovered from the ASSOCIATION which was the Flagship of Sir Clowdisley Shovell which sunk when it hit the Gilstone Ledges in 1707.I. It comes together with a1970\'s card showing the salvors with some of their finds and a personally signed certificate of authenticity pesonally signed by the salvor with a referenced photo of the actual bottle also signed .

HMS Association shipwreck.

In October 1707, Association,commanded by Captain Edmund Loades and with Admiral Shovell on board, wasreturning from the Mediterranean after the Toulon campaign. The 21 ships in the squadron entered themouth of the English Channel on the night of 22 October 1707 (Old style). At 8pm, Association struck the Outer Gilstone Rock off the Isles ofScilly, and was wrecked with the loss of her entire crew of about 800 men. As aresult of navigational errors, the ships were not where they were reckoned tobe. Association was seen by those on board HMS St George to godown in three or four minutes\' time. Among the dead were Captain Loades andAdmiral Shovell, his stepsons Sir John Narborough and James Narborough (sons ofShovell\'s wife from her marriage to Rear Admiral Sir John Narbrough) as well asHenry Trelawney, second son of the Bishop of Winchester. Captain Loades was theson of Rear Admiral Sir John Narbrough\'s sister. Three other ships (HMS Eagle,HMS Romney and HMS Firebrand) were also lost, bringing the deathtoll to nearly 2,000. The Scilly naval disaster was one of the greatestmaritime disasters in British history. It was largely as a result of thisdisaster that the Board of the Admiralty instituted a competition for a more precisemethod to determine longitude. There is an impressive memorial depicting thesinking of the Association in the church at the Narboroughs\' home ofKnowlton near Dover.

Discovery of the wreck

In June 1967, the minesweeper, HMS Puttenham,equipped with twelve divers under the command of Engineer-Lieutenant RoyGraham, sailed to the Isles of Scilly and dropped anchor off Gilstone Ledge,just to the south-east of Bishop Rock and close to the Western Rocks. The yearbefore, Graham and other specialists from the Naval Air Command Sub Aqua Clubhad dived in this area on a first attempt to find the Association. Herecalled some years later: \"The weather was so bad, all we achieved wasthe sight of a blur of seaweed, seals and white water as we were swept throughthe Gilstone Reef and fortunately out the other side.\" On their secondattempt in summer 1967, using the minesweeper and supported by the Royal NavyAuxiliary Service, Graham and his men finally managed to locate the remains of Associationon the Gilstone Ledge. Parts of the wreck are in 30 feet while others can befound at between 90 and 120 feet as the sea floor falls away from the reef. Thedivers first discovered a cannon, and on the third dive, silver and gold coinswere spotted underneath that cannon. The Ministry of Defence initiallysuppressed news of the discovery for fear of attracting treasure hunters, butword was soon out and excited huge national interest. More than 2,000 coins andother artefacts were finally recovered from the wreck site and saleed bySotheby\'s in July 1969. The rediscovery of the Association and thefinding of so many historical artefacts in her wreck also led to moregovernment legislation, notably the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973, passed in anattempt to preserve British historic wreck sites as part of the maritimeheritage.

The wrecksite has now been protected under an emergency designation based on false information but that is how the beaurocrats work ? There will be no more coins or artifacts brought up from this wreck because of the designation so this is a rare opportunity to get one of the last 8 Reales .