HMS Eagle (1679)

HMS Eagle was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1679.

She underwent a rebuild at Chatham Dockyard in 1699, retaining her armament of 70 guns. She was captained by James Wishart and served at the Battle of Cadiz and the Battle of Vigo Bay in 1702 when there was a raid on Spanish silver.

Under the command of Captain Robert Hancock, Eagle was lost with all hands off the Scilly Isles on 22 October 1707 when a disastrous navigational error sent Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell's fleet through dangerous reefs while on their way from Gibraltar to Portsmouth. Four ships (Eagle, Association, Firebrand and Romney) were lost, with nearly 2,000 sailors. The Scilly naval disaster was one of the greatest maritime disasters in British history. It was largely as a result of this disaster that the Board of the Admiralty instituted a competition for a more precise method to determine longitude.