greetings. has anyone heard of a British warship names H.M.S. Looe that sunk somewere between raritan bay and sandyhook NJ. during the American revolution?
h.m.s. looe
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signumops
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Check out Looe Key reef park, just south of Summerland Key in the Lower Keys. Spent many happy days there. The wreck is just on the inshore side of the reef. Nothing left to see there except the fish.
IF you can find a copy of "The Last Voyage Of HMS LOO" by Mendel Peterson (published monograph by Smithsonian, Nov. 23, 1955, Publication 4224) you can see some of the stuff that was taken off the wreck.
IF you can find a copy of "The Last Voyage Of HMS LOO" by Mendel Peterson (published monograph by Smithsonian, Nov. 23, 1955, Publication 4224) you can see some of the stuff that was taken off the wreck.
ivan salis
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H M S LOOE ---yep its in florida -- even got a "key" named after it where it wrecked.
she wreck feb 5th , 1744 during the war of jenkins ear * ( thus not in the rev war but before it )
she was a 5th rate vessel of 44 guns .
hope this helps
she wreck feb 5th , 1744 during the war of jenkins ear * ( thus not in the rev war but before it )
she was a 5th rate vessel of 44 guns .
hope this helps
Galleon Hunter
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Six ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Looe, after the Cornish town of Looe. Another was planned but never completed:
HMS Looe was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1696 and wrecked in 1697.
HMS Looe was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1697 and wrecked in 1705.
HMS Looe was a 42-gun fifth rate launched in 1707. She was reduced to harbour service in 1735 and was sunk as a breakwater in 1737.
HMS Looe was a 44-gun fifth rate launched in 1741 and wrecked in 1744.
HMS Looe was a 44-gun fifth rate launched in 1745 and sunk as a breakwater in 1759.
HMS Looe was a 30-gun fifth rate, formerly the privateer Liverpool. She was purchased in 1759 and sold in 1763.
HMS Looe was to have been a Bangor-class minesweeper. She was laid down in 1941, renamed HMS Lyemun on the stocks, but was captured that year by the Japanese. She was completed as Nan Yo in 1943, and was lost later that year.
Since Looe #6 was sold in 1763, there were no HMS Looe's in service during the American Revolution 1775-1783. The only one lost in North America was Looe #4. See below.
1744. British frigate (called a man-of-war on some accounts) H.M.S. Looe (sometimes called Loo), 44-guns, 685-tons, Captain Ashby Utting, sailing from Cuba to Charleston, was lost in the Florida Keys along with a Spanish prize ship she had captured shortly before named the Snow on February 5. Utting commanded a small flotilla composed of the frigates Looe, Flamborough, and Rye and the sloop Spy. His orders were to patrol the coastal waters of the Carolinas and to cruise off Cuba to deter Spanish privateers that were harassing British maritime commerce. Although the captured vessel was flying a French flag, documents thrown overboard and retrieved by the Looe, revealed the ship was actually Spanish. Utting later testified at his court martial that “Having no prospect of getting her (the Looe) off I ordered the masts to be cut away and all the upper deck guns and anchors to be thrown overboard, that she might lay quiet and by that means save the men which by good fortune she did.”
According to contemporary documents, the prize vessel wrecked a cable’s length west of the Looe. The only items saved from either ship was twenty bags of bread and six barrels of gunpowder. The crews of both ships reached the Bahamas in small boats after burning both wrecked vessels to the waterline. The site of the wreck was called la Pareda by the Spaniards, but shortly later after the area was referred to as Looe Reef, as it is still called today. The wreck site is located about eight miles southwest of Big Pine Key and ½ mile off the northern end of Bahia Honda Key.
The Lords of the Admiralty held a court martial, onboard H.M.S. Sandwich on May 31, 1744. The court concluded that “Captain Utting and his Officers did in no wise contribute to H.M.S. Looe going ashore and that they did everything in their power to save the ship and in every respect did their duty.” It appeared to the Court that “the course the ship steered was a good one, and must have carried her thro the Gulph of Florida, with all safety had not some unusual current rendered the said course ineffectual.”
In 1950 Captain Bill Thompson, of Marathon, Florida spotted an old wreck with cannons off Looe Reef. The wreck lay in only 23 feet of water. He told his friends, Dr. and Mrs. George Crile, from Cleveland, and the trio was soon working the site, bringing up among other things 6-pounder and 12-pounder cannons, bearing the Broad Arrow and Rose and Crown markings and a Swedish coin dated 1720. They brought in Mendel Peterson, an underwater archaeologist and Curator of Armed Forces History at the Smithsonian Institution.
Peterson examined both the shipwreck and a variety of artifacts recovered from the site. These objects led to the conclusion that the vessel was a British ship that sank after 1720 and probably before 1750. The ship carried 12-pounder and 6-pounder cannons in her main was armed, and sank as a direct result of accident rather than naval action, since the wooden plugs were found in the gun barrels. A Tudor crown rose on one of the cannons substantiated the conclusion that the ship sank before 1750, as the emblem was not commonly used after the death of Queen Anne in 1714. Peterson estimated that the usefulness of an iron cannon at sea was not much over 35-40 years. The mark of the Board Arrow on the cannons and cannonballs indicated the ships was British. Permanent iron ballast cast to fit the hull also proved she was a warship. From these and other artifacts Mendel Peterson, who examined the site, placed the wreck as a small English warship of the 1720-1750 period. Checking through a registry of British warships he came across the notation: “February 5, 1744, Looe, 44-guns…lost in America.” The name of the reef, like so many others, had been taken from the ship, which it sent to the bottom.
In the early 1950’s, Ed Link obtained information about the snow and searched the reef a cable’s length west of the Looe. There he found and recovered the Snow’s anchor. Another old wreck lies buried under fifteen feet of sand nearby. This wreck was discovered by Art Hartman. He found many iron cannons, two bronze cannons, swords and a number of flintlock muskets with attached bayonets. The unidentified shipwreck could be the remains of the prize vessel.
Art Hartman and Bobby Jordan worked the site of the Looe in the early 1970’s. They recovered silver candlestick holders, pewter jugs, pewter mugs, cannonsballs, forks, sproons and the top of a snuff box. Many of the artifacts were encased in coral conglomerates that contained charred wood and other material. (Note: The 5th rate warship was built by Thomas Snelgrove and launched at Limehouse in 1741. British Warships in the Age of Sail mistakenly states the Looe was lost on a cay in the Bahamas, off Cape Florida.” According to my research, the prize vessel that wrecked with Looe was probably the Bilander Betty, an English ship captured by the Spanish in May 1743. Two seamen aboard the frigate recognized the vessel. When Spanish and French documents were discovered to be onboard, the vessel was taken in tow with the intention of sorting out the matter in Charleston. Different authors over the years have referred to the prize vessel as the Snow, I believe she was actually the Bilander Betty and perhaps was rigged as a snow, which would explain the confusion.
HMS Looe was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1696 and wrecked in 1697.
HMS Looe was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1697 and wrecked in 1705.
HMS Looe was a 42-gun fifth rate launched in 1707. She was reduced to harbour service in 1735 and was sunk as a breakwater in 1737.
HMS Looe was a 44-gun fifth rate launched in 1741 and wrecked in 1744.
HMS Looe was a 44-gun fifth rate launched in 1745 and sunk as a breakwater in 1759.
HMS Looe was a 30-gun fifth rate, formerly the privateer Liverpool. She was purchased in 1759 and sold in 1763.
HMS Looe was to have been a Bangor-class minesweeper. She was laid down in 1941, renamed HMS Lyemun on the stocks, but was captured that year by the Japanese. She was completed as Nan Yo in 1943, and was lost later that year.
Since Looe #6 was sold in 1763, there were no HMS Looe's in service during the American Revolution 1775-1783. The only one lost in North America was Looe #4. See below.
1744. British frigate (called a man-of-war on some accounts) H.M.S. Looe (sometimes called Loo), 44-guns, 685-tons, Captain Ashby Utting, sailing from Cuba to Charleston, was lost in the Florida Keys along with a Spanish prize ship she had captured shortly before named the Snow on February 5. Utting commanded a small flotilla composed of the frigates Looe, Flamborough, and Rye and the sloop Spy. His orders were to patrol the coastal waters of the Carolinas and to cruise off Cuba to deter Spanish privateers that were harassing British maritime commerce. Although the captured vessel was flying a French flag, documents thrown overboard and retrieved by the Looe, revealed the ship was actually Spanish. Utting later testified at his court martial that “Having no prospect of getting her (the Looe) off I ordered the masts to be cut away and all the upper deck guns and anchors to be thrown overboard, that she might lay quiet and by that means save the men which by good fortune she did.”
According to contemporary documents, the prize vessel wrecked a cable’s length west of the Looe. The only items saved from either ship was twenty bags of bread and six barrels of gunpowder. The crews of both ships reached the Bahamas in small boats after burning both wrecked vessels to the waterline. The site of the wreck was called la Pareda by the Spaniards, but shortly later after the area was referred to as Looe Reef, as it is still called today. The wreck site is located about eight miles southwest of Big Pine Key and ½ mile off the northern end of Bahia Honda Key.
The Lords of the Admiralty held a court martial, onboard H.M.S. Sandwich on May 31, 1744. The court concluded that “Captain Utting and his Officers did in no wise contribute to H.M.S. Looe going ashore and that they did everything in their power to save the ship and in every respect did their duty.” It appeared to the Court that “the course the ship steered was a good one, and must have carried her thro the Gulph of Florida, with all safety had not some unusual current rendered the said course ineffectual.”
In 1950 Captain Bill Thompson, of Marathon, Florida spotted an old wreck with cannons off Looe Reef. The wreck lay in only 23 feet of water. He told his friends, Dr. and Mrs. George Crile, from Cleveland, and the trio was soon working the site, bringing up among other things 6-pounder and 12-pounder cannons, bearing the Broad Arrow and Rose and Crown markings and a Swedish coin dated 1720. They brought in Mendel Peterson, an underwater archaeologist and Curator of Armed Forces History at the Smithsonian Institution.
Peterson examined both the shipwreck and a variety of artifacts recovered from the site. These objects led to the conclusion that the vessel was a British ship that sank after 1720 and probably before 1750. The ship carried 12-pounder and 6-pounder cannons in her main was armed, and sank as a direct result of accident rather than naval action, since the wooden plugs were found in the gun barrels. A Tudor crown rose on one of the cannons substantiated the conclusion that the ship sank before 1750, as the emblem was not commonly used after the death of Queen Anne in 1714. Peterson estimated that the usefulness of an iron cannon at sea was not much over 35-40 years. The mark of the Board Arrow on the cannons and cannonballs indicated the ships was British. Permanent iron ballast cast to fit the hull also proved she was a warship. From these and other artifacts Mendel Peterson, who examined the site, placed the wreck as a small English warship of the 1720-1750 period. Checking through a registry of British warships he came across the notation: “February 5, 1744, Looe, 44-guns…lost in America.” The name of the reef, like so many others, had been taken from the ship, which it sent to the bottom.
In the early 1950’s, Ed Link obtained information about the snow and searched the reef a cable’s length west of the Looe. There he found and recovered the Snow’s anchor. Another old wreck lies buried under fifteen feet of sand nearby. This wreck was discovered by Art Hartman. He found many iron cannons, two bronze cannons, swords and a number of flintlock muskets with attached bayonets. The unidentified shipwreck could be the remains of the prize vessel.
Art Hartman and Bobby Jordan worked the site of the Looe in the early 1970’s. They recovered silver candlestick holders, pewter jugs, pewter mugs, cannonsballs, forks, sproons and the top of a snuff box. Many of the artifacts were encased in coral conglomerates that contained charred wood and other material. (Note: The 5th rate warship was built by Thomas Snelgrove and launched at Limehouse in 1741. British Warships in the Age of Sail mistakenly states the Looe was lost on a cay in the Bahamas, off Cape Florida.” According to my research, the prize vessel that wrecked with Looe was probably the Bilander Betty, an English ship captured by the Spanish in May 1743. Two seamen aboard the frigate recognized the vessel. When Spanish and French documents were discovered to be onboard, the vessel was taken in tow with the intention of sorting out the matter in Charleston. Different authors over the years have referred to the prize vessel as the Snow, I believe she was actually the Bilander Betty and perhaps was rigged as a snow, which would explain the confusion.
Darren in NC
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Very nice work, Rob!
treshuntintom
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Happy New Year to everyone.Rob's new book should be going to press real soon.Be sure and get a copy.Tom
stevemc
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Delete the part about 1/2 mile North of Bahia Honda, that is way wrong. It probably 10-12 miles SW of the South end of Bahia Honda at least. Maybe much more. It is off Little Torch Key. Way West of Big Pine Key. Quickest way to get there anyway. A university research team worked the wreck in the fairly recent past and found a few artifacts. Nothing exciting. I have dove that area and the reef is spectacular, starts in about 30' of water and comes up to 2-3' deep very nice diving. It is a preserve now.
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