Ships gallery

[brian daley]

The name Anson is famed in British history, he, more than any other individual ,helped Britain take her rightful place in the world as a major sea power. This painting by Samuel Scott ,shows the incident that catapulted him, and the Navy,into becoming an icon for a nation that viewed itself as the new Rome. In 1740 Commander George Anson took a squadron of battleships around the world ,the Centurion a 60 gun Fourth Rate ship of the line was his flagship. They were away for four years and during that time Anson lost the rest of his ships,most of his men and all of his teeth to the dreaded scurvey. In the June of 1743 he came across the ultimate prize,the Manila galleon Nuestra Senora de Cavadonga. After a hard won battle,the Spaniard lowered her colours and Anson won a prize that made him, and Britain,very rich. The Spanish gold saved a beleagured Britain and funded the war and thus paved the way for the destruction of Spanish power in the Pacific. Centurions final battle was for the capture of Havana in1762,she sailed on until 1769 ,when she was sent to the breakers yard.
BrianD