Our article ‘Royal George: The Sinking of the Royal Navy’s Greatest Warship’ was published in the summer 2020 issue of the online magazine Quarterdeck. This was the disastrous accidental sinking of the Royal George warship at Spithead, off Portsmouth, in August 1782. As well as the loss of over 900 lives, it was also the loss of the flagship that was about to lead a relief convoy to the besieged Rock of Gibraltar. The delay caused by the sinking and its aftermath almost led to Gibraltar being captured by the French and Spanish, but the garrison of the Rock held out.

It was an important incident for British, American and Gibraltarian history, which we feature in our latest book, Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History. The editor of Quarterdeck, George Jepson, found some beautiful images to accompany our article, which can be found on pages 18–22. Quarterdeck can be downloaded as a free PDF here.