The Royal Anne was a 40-gun galley-frigate, a type of small, fast warship, combining sail with oar propulsion. Designed by Marquis Carmarthen and built at Woolwich Dockyard in 1709, she was involved in suppressing piracy in the Cape Verdes and West Africa, and the first Jacobite revolt.
The last voyage was unlucky from the start, with a collision and grounding in British waters before severe weather in Biscay forced the Royal Anne back to take shelter in England. On the way, the ship was wrecked on the rocks off Lizard Point. The date was 10 November 1721. The captain, several lieutenants, 24 ‘gentlemen’ and 207 crew were drowned, and most of the bodies are believed to be buried in a cliff-top grave at Pistol Meadow. The victims included John, 3rd Lord Belhaven, who was heading for Barbados to take up a new post as the Governor.
The wreck site was rediscovered in 1991 by local diver Robert Sherratt who discovered a sounding lead adjacent to two iron guns. Since then, numerous objects have been recovered from the seabed in the vicinity of the iron guns These include items of cutlery bearing the Belhaven crest, which led to the identification of the wreck – which was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act in 1993.
The Ballad
This recording is of an edited version of a ballad produced soon after the wreck of the Royal Anne, titled ‘The Unhappy Voyage’ and telling the ‘sad and dismal story brought from off the Lizard rocks.’ Based on a newspaper account, the ballad makes the most of the elements likely to shock and engage potential buyers: the terrible power of natural forces; the wealthy and venturesome Lord Belhaven overtaken by death despite his bravery and optimism; a widowed wife tied down on her bed, driven mad by grief.
The ballad was sold as a ‘broadside’ – a single, large sheet of text designed to be read and perhaps performed amongst friends. Broadside ballads were often accompanied by one or more woodcut illustrations. In this case, there is a vivid image of swollen waves, three sinking vessels – and three desperate men struggling in the water with arms outstretched as they plead in vain for help. On the dark and threatening rocks nearby are cast three bodies: their unlucky shipmates, or perhaps ‘what happened next’ – an early equivalent of the next frame in a graphic novel. In fact, the Royal Anne was not wrecked in the company of other ships, and this is probably a generic image. The broadsheet survives in the Roxburghe Collection of the British Library.[1]
The tune the broadsheet publisher suggested for the ballad is ‘A Woman’s Work is Never Done.’ There were several songs and tunes of that name in the early 18th century, but the one that seems best to fit the words – and therefore used here – is also known as ‘The Doubting Virgin.’ To produce a 21st-century version of the ballad, Tom Goskar and Tehmina Goskar arranged the tune and Linda Camidge edited the lengthy and rather unstructured original text. It is performed here by Tehmina Goskar (violin), Tom Goskar (mandolin) and Linda Camidge (concertina and vocals).
[1] Roxburghe Library C.20.f.9.593, p 3.593, available in the English Broadside Ballad Archive (31293) http://ebba.ds.lib.ucdavis.edu/ballad/31293/image