Royal navy shipwreck found after 250 years

British royal 28 gun sixth-rate frigate known as HMS Hind wreckage identified in Sanday, Orkney. The ship was used in the American War of Independence in the 1770s and served for many active years.

Wessex Archaeology department senior official, Ben Saunders, on July 24, 2025, announced: “I would regard it, a lucky ship, a strange thing to say, a ship that’s wrecked.”

“I think if it had been found in many other places, it wouldn’t necessarily have had that community drive, that desire to recover and study that material,” Saunders concluded.

18th century warship was discovered back in February 2024 after Sanday Island was hit with strom which uncovered the ruins. Locals with tractors pulled off the heavy wooden beams and iron straps from the beach.

Dendrochronology revealed that timber was used in the 18th century and wood came from Southern England. Hardwood belonged to the Oak tree and weighed 12 tons.

The Coventry class ship was built by Kent residents shipwrights Clayton & Willson in November 1787, and was commissioned after three years in May 1790.

The full rigged watercraft was dismantled after being in service for many years in July 1811, at Deptford where it was completed 26 years ago in 1785.