Diving for the wreck of HMS Tilbury

by a retired diver from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Between July of 1968 and the summer of 1970, myself and a partner looked in earnest for the HMS Tilbury off St. Esprit Island, Nova Scotia. We converted a 32 foot fishing boat to a cabin type cruiser and began our mission to find HMS Tilbury, a 4th rate Man-Of-War, mounting 58 guns, launched at Portsmouth Dockyard, England on July 20th, 1745. She was of 1,124 tons displacement, and her principal dimensions were length 147 feet, beam 42 feet. Our investigation disclosed that she was lost in a hurricane on September 25th, 1759. Investigation also indicated that she carried 1 ¼ million in gold to pay the English troops who fought at Louisburg.

Our investigation over the two year period included speaking with several residents from Forchu, Framboise, and Lower St. Esprit along the south coast of Cape Breton Island. It would eventually take us to an area of concentration between L’Archeveque & St. Esprit. At this time, we also collaborated with Alex Storm, Curator of the Fortress of Louisburg, who recovered the wreck of the French pay ship the Chameau off of Louisburg in the late 60’s. He recovered over 980,000 in gold doubloons. We traveled to Louisburg to search the archives for maps dating back to the 1700’s however we were not allowed to see and photograph at that time and never did. Alex Storm did offer that the Tilbury would be most difficult to find due to the depth of water and the conditions prevalent in the area. We did not agree with his position.

We felt that the English ships that sailed from Halifax and waited for an opportune time to sail to Louisburg, may have sought shelter in the natural harbour afforded by L’Archeveque and the shoreline area between L’Archeveque and St. Esprit Island.

Unfortunately, our search was unsuccessful as we did not have the technical equipment that is available today like side scanners and magnetometers. We towed a bedspring and operated off trapezes that were towed underwater for our search over anchored grid patterns. We employed three other divers to increase bottom time due to depth/decompression limitations.

We did find spar riggers and grape shot. We carbon date tested the wood in the spar riggers and it tested out at 200+ years. We concluded that we indeed found artifacts from the bow end of the Tilbury and that the stern end which was probably the heaviest was buried in the shifting sands off Esprit Island and the many shoals (Tilbury Rocks) located in this area.

I can tell you that I was not surprised to see the article in The Daily News Monday January 9th 2006 that an expedition to recover 30 Million was in progress or that a French Team had discovered the wreck in the 80’s. I wish them every success and only wish it was me! As I said, if we had the equipment like a side scanner, divers would not be searching today!

-v-v-v-

The "Tilbury Rocks" - St. Esprit, Cape Breton,
showing a 7½ ft. cannon (3½ in. bore) from the wreck of HMS Tilbury*

Our research, speaking with many residents of St. Peters, St. Esprit, Forchu etc., all indicates that their relatives and other residents helped the survivors. This fact and local knowledge was passed on down through time to the current residents of the area. Their ancestors shared these maritime stories with their children and grand-children who passed them along; they were significant to their heritage as sailors and fishermen.

-v-v-v-

I currently live in Kamloops, British Columbia and I have retired from the RCMP after 35 years of service. From 1962 to 1987 I was very involved in the Force’s Underwater Recovery Program. I specialized in Under Ice recoveries and trained many dive teams from B.C. to Newfoundland between 1979 and 1981. From 1968 to 1970, I spent all my vacation time, long weekends and weekends searching for the Tilbury. I have a Lloyd’s of London, Lime Street, London E.C.3 letter dated July 2nd 1969 in my possession. The letter was in answer to our query to them to provide information on the loss of HMS Tilbury.

June 2nd, 2007 - PeteN in Canada, b. Devon, UK