Primary Sources:

Prior History:

May 14. Chatham. Com[missione]r Peter Pett to the Navy Com[missione]rs.

Can say nothing as to any acquittance given to prize officers for receipt of goods from prize ships, nor of the sum each vessel has been valued at, except the SANTA MARIA and the FORTUNE dogger boat, for both of which he gave a receipt. Has never been ordered to appraise them, nor to give receipts, but will send a valuation of the vessels and their furniture and goods on guess, if desired. [Adm. Paper.] (7)

June 15. London. John Rushworth to Lady—.

The ROYAL CHARLES, STA. MARIA, ROYAL OAK, ROYAL JAMES, LOYAL LONDON, and UNITY, all great ships, are burned by the Dutch in Chatham River, besides two lesser ships, wherein were 500 men, all lost . . . (6)

Entry for Sunday 30 June 1667:

' . . . Captain Brookes’s running aground with the “SANCTA MARIA,� which was one of the three ships that were ordered to be sunk to have dammed up the River at the chaine, is mightily cried against, and with reason, he being the chief man to approve of the abilities of other men, and the other two ships did get safe thither and he run aground; but yet I do hear that though he be blameable, yet if she had been there, she nor two more to them three would have been able to have commanded the river all over.' (7)

Pictorial Sources:

A contemporary print, with a key, shows at No.21 'T SLOT HONINGEN verovert en daar na verbrandt', ('The SLOT HONINGEN captured and then burnt') illustrating a ship burning on the northern or Upnor side of the river east of Upnor Castle, in a position which seems to approximate to opposite St. Mary's Island, i.e. the Chatham side, and consistent with Cockham Reach. (11)

In a near-contemporary painting of the incident, a large ship is shown aground in the middle ground, and is attributed to the SANCTA MARIA. This view, however, shows, this ship ashore to the south of the Mussel Bank, on the eastern, rather than western, bank of the Medway, and is thus at odds with (11) above. (12)

It may be that in (12) there is some conflation of the ships sunk at the Mussel Bank with the ships sunk at the chain, since their purpose was similar, to block the river to the Dutch advance. (13)

Secondary Sources:

Prior History:

Built as 'T SLOT VAN HONINGEN, 1654, for the Rotterdam Chamber of the VOC. Captured at the Dogger Bank, 1665. (6)

Account of the Loss:

Ex. SANCTA MARIA.

A Dutch prize vessel taken into Royal Navy service, was ordered to be scuttled as a blockship near the defence boom chain across the River Upnor, under the direction of the Master Attendant of Chatham Dockyard, John Brookes. She ran aground on a sandbank between Gillingham and Upnor and was abandoned. The Dutch yacht DE BRAK sent a party on board to set her on fire. The remains were sold on 12-OCT-1667 to a Mr Boys for salvage. (1)(2)

No change of name from the Dutch given, listed as the MARIA SANCTA. Dutch prize of 400 tons, length 106 feet x 26 feet 6 inches beam; burnt by the Dutch 1667. (3)

Indexed as the SANTA MARIA. Fourth rate of 50 guns, captured 1665, and burnt by the Dutch 12.6.1667 at Chatham. (4)

As a result of a council of war on 11 June 1667, it was resolved to tow three ships to be scuttled to reinforce the chain, namely the MARMADUKE, SANCTA MARIA, and NORWAY MERCHANT. The Duke of Albemarle ordered it to be seen to as soon as possible within the short space of time between the end of the conference at 11pm and high tide two hours later.

The three ships were then taken down the river towards the chain at Gillingham to be scuttled, but in Cockham Wood Reach the SANCTA MARIA ran aground. Phineas Pett blamed her commanding officer, saying that he had wasted time and the tide was already ebbing by the time the ship got under way, so that she grounded because of her deep draught. The men aboard her were transferred to the ROYAL CHARLES or to the batteries at either end of the chain.

John Evelyn, in a sketch he sent to Pepys, entitled "A Scheme of the Posture of the Dutch Fleete and action at Sherenesse and Chatham 10th, 11th, and 12th of June 1667, taken upon the place by J.E.", names her as the MARY.

It showed the chain, with the UNITY moored on the Gillingham side, just below it and with the CHARLES V and MATTHIAS just above it. The MONMOUTH lay beyond them in Gillingham Reach, and then above her, stretching as far as Rochester Bridge, the ROYAL CHARLES, MARY [SANCTA MARIA], ROYAL OAK, LOYAL LONDON, ROYAL JAMES, CATHERINE, PRINCESS, OLD JAMES, GUIDEN RYTER [GELDERSE RUYTER] TRIUMPH, RAINBOW, UNICORN, HENRY, HELVERSON [HILVERSUM] and VANGUARD.

In 1876, when new foundations were being constructed during the extension of Chatham Dockyard, the remains of an old man of war were found at the east end of St. Mary's Creek, with her guns embedded in the mud around her. This wreck may have been either the SANCTA MARIA or the CHARLES V, since in a survey of the Medway made on 10 and 11 October 1667 both these ships were reported as lying on the south-east side of Cockham Wood Reach [Sloane MS 2448, ff.39-40]

'Beyond the ROYAL CHARLES, in Cockham Wood Reach, lay the grounded SANCTA MARIA, and she proved to be the final objective of the Dutch on Wednesday 12 June.' A sloop sailed upriver and boarded her, 'but afterwards, in circumstances that were never cleared up, she was set on fire and destroyed by the Dutch themselves. It seems that they did this after all efforts to get the vessel afloat again had failed, but that the decision was taken without reference to Cornelis de Witt.'

The SANCTA MARIA was destroyed. James Norman, Clerk of the Survey at Chatham, sent Pepys an account of the financial losses incurred in the damage to the warships on 17 August 1667, wherein he valued the SANCTA MARIA, at £600.

At a public auction on 22 September 1669, the 'bottom of the SANCTA MARIA' was bought for £21 by a Mr Boys of London, higher than her valuation in a letter to the Navy Board of 4 October 1669 at £12. The wrecks purchased at these auctions were not broken up until 1670.

The English debacle during the Raid on the Medway was blamed on the SANCTA MARIA: had she been successfully scuttled in her intended location between the MARMADUKE and NORWAY MERCHANT, the Dutch might have been prevented from getting through.

Albemarle stated: 'If that ship had been sunk in the place where I had appointed, the Dutch ships could not have gogt beyond those of ours sunk within the chain, and thereby none of the King's ships, within, could have been destroyed.' [Journals of the House of Commons, Vol.IX, 1667-87, 31 October 1667] He thus blamed the carelessness of the pilot and the Masters of Attendance of Chatham Dockyard, whereas Phineas Pett in 1671 blamed Captain John Brooke, one of those Masters of Attendance. However, his testimony may have been motivated by his ongoing dispute with Captain Brooke, and his allegations were not followed up. (5)

That the SLOTHANY (ex. SLOT VAN HONINGEN) and SANCTA MARIA were different ships is illustrated by the account of the Four Days' Battle in 1666. The SLOTHANY was a Third Rate, formerly the Dutch East Indiaman SLOT HOONINGEN and the SANCTA MARIA was a Fourth Rate. They were refitted at Chatham at the same time.

The SANCTA MARIA was a merchantman of Venice captured in the Mediterranean in 1664. Although she belonged to Venice, and her papers confirmed this, the officers and crew were all Dutch. (9)

Captured in the Mediterranean in 1664, and present at the Four Days' Battle and St. James's Day Fight. (10)

Where Built: Netherlands (1)(2); Venice (9)
Acquired: 1664 (1)(2)(9); 1665 (3)
Armament: 50 guns (1)(2)(3)(4); 70 guns (5)
Commanding Officer: John Brooke (5); Brookes (7)
Owner: Royal Navy (all sources)

Date of Loss Qualifier: Actual date of loss

<1> British Warship losses in the Age of Sail 1650-1859 (Monograph). SKE6713.

<2> Larn, Richard and Bridget, 1995, Shipwreck index of the British Isles, volume 2 : Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Sussex, Kent (Mainland), Kent (Downs), Goodwin Sands, Thames (Bibliographic reference). SKE31910.

<3> Lists of Men of War 1650-1700 Part 1: English Sips 1649-1702 (Monograph). SKE6710.

<4> J J Colledge, 1989, Ships of the Royal Navy, volume 1 (Bibliographic reference). SKE6390.

<5> Rogers P G, 1970, The Dutch in the Medway (Bibliographic reference). SKE56188.

<8> Pepys S, 1667, The Diary of Samuel Pepys (Bibliographic reference). SKE56186.

<9> 1765-, London Gazette (Newspaper). SKE56185.

<6-7> Calendar of State Papers Domestic (Bibliographic reference). SKE6354.

<10-12> Peter Higginbotham, 2000, The Workhouse (Website). SKE56079.