From the NMR:

Flagship of Admiral Basil Beaumont, she was the senior ship in the Downs. Captain Hopson was ashore when the storm broke and was unable to return on board. The ship was driven from the anchorage onto the Goodwin Sands, where she was wrecked. The Admiral, with all 269 men on board, drowned. (1)

`She was built as a `frigate' in the style of the Dunkirk privateers and the CONSTANT WARWICK. She can be considered the prototype of the two decker line of battle ship.' (2)

Flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Sir Basil Beaumont, she was lost with the Admiral. Only her captain and the ship's purser, who were both ashore at the time, and one seaman on board, escaped alive from the wreck. This was Thomas Atkins, a seaman, who had a most remarkable experience. He was washed clean off the deck of the MARY as she commenced breaking up, and whilst in the water, clinging to wreckage, saw the Admiral leave the quarter-deck for the sea and drown. A freak wave then flung Atkins bodily onto the upper deck of the man o'war STIRLING CASTLE as she drove past in the gale. Minutes later she too was on the Goodwins and breaking up, and Atkins was shipwrecked for a second time within a few minutes. Again thrown overboard, he landed directly into a ship's boat, and eventually reached shore suffering from exposure, as its sole occupant. A wreck site uncovered in the late 1970s was thought to be the MARY, but measurements have since proven it to be the RESTORATION, so that the MARY has yet to be found. (4)

`Deale, Nov. 27. We have had so violent a storm at south west that the like has not been known in these parts in the memory of man; it began to blow hard yesterday in the evening, but about 11 at night it blew so hard with sudden gusts and violent storms of wind, that it made all the houses of the town shake...and so continued till about 9 this morning. We find missing of our merchant men upwards of 70 sail, and these men of war following, viz. the MARY, Rear Admiral Beaumont...

`Postscript at one in the afternoon: It blows hard still, but being cleared up to the north-east we perceive two hulls of ships...two other great ships were seen on the Goodwin Sands, one of them being the MARY, who had her flag flying, but the flood coming on we can see no more of them.' (5)

`Deale, Nov. 28. Her Majesty's Ships the STERLING CASTLE, the RESTAURATION, NORTHUMBERLAND and MARY, are all four missing...' (6)

`London, Dec. 1...A gentleman, who was on board the ANTELOPE hospital ship which rid at the storm in the Downs, reports, that of the RESTAURATION and MARY, not a soul was saved...' (7)

`There having been various and confused accounts given last week of the loss sustained among Her Majesty's ships of war in the late storm, we present the public with the following authentic list of all that are irrecoverably lost...The MARY, a fourth rate, Rear Admiral Beaumont, Capt. Edw. Hopson, on the Goodwin Sands. The Captain and Purser ashore, one man saved, the rest drowned.' (8)

`London, January 10: Captain John Whetstone, who was Commadore of the squadron lately arrived from the West Indies, is made Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron of her Magesty's fleet, in the room of Rear Admiral Basil Beaumont who was lost on board the MARY on the Goodwin Sands in the late violent storm.' (9)

`Sir, These Lines I hope in God will find you in good health, we are all left here in a dismal condition, expecting every moment to be all drowned. For here is a great storm, and is very likely to to continue; we have here the Rear Admiral of the Blew in the Ship, call'd the MARY, a third Rate, the very next ship to ours, sunk, with Admiral Beaumont, and above 500 men drowned...

`To see Admiral Beaumont, that was next us, and all the rest of his men, how they climed up the main mast, hundreds at a time crying out for help, and thinking to save their lives, and in the twinkling of an eye were drown'd: I can give you no account, but of these four men of war aforesaid, which I saw with my own eyes...we lye here in great danger, and waiting for a north easterly wind to bring us to Portsmouth...Yours to Command, Miles Norcliffe. I send this, having opportunity by our botes, that went ashoar to carry some poor men off, that were almost dead, and were taken up swimming.' (10)

`A list of such of Her Majesty's Ships, with their Commanders' Names, as were cast away by the violent storm on Friday Night the 26th of November 1703, the wind having been from the SW to WSW and the storm continuing from about midnight to past six in the morning:

`Fourth [rate], MARY, 273 men before the storm, 64 guns, Rear Admiral Beaumont, Edward Hopson, lost on the Goodwin Sands; only one man saved by swimming from Wreck to Wreck, and getting to the STERLING CASTLE; the Captain ashoar, as also the purser.' (10)

`There are an innumberable variety of deliverances, besides these, which deserve a memorial to future ages, but these are noted...

`Particularly, 'tis a most remarkable story of a man belonging to the MARY, a fourth rate man of war, lost upon the Goodwin Sands; and all the ship's company but himself being lost, he, by the help of a piece of the broken ship, got a-board the NORTHUMBERLAND; but the violence of the storm continuing, the NORTHUMBERLAND ran the same fate with the MARY, and coming on shore upon the same sand, was split to pieces by the violence of the sea: and yet this person, by a singular Providence, ws one of the 64 that were delivered by a Deal hooker out of that ship, all the rest perishing in the sea.' (10)

`From on board a ship blown out of the Downs to Norway....There was a great fleet with us in the Downs...the next day, being Friday, in the evening, it began to gather to windward; and as it had blown very hard all day, at night the wind freshen'd, and we all expected a stormy night. We saw the men of war struck their top-masts, and rode with two cables an-end, so we made all as snug as we could, and prepar'd for the worst.

`In this condition we rid it out till about 12-a-clock; when, the fury of the wind encreasing, we began to see destruction before us: the objects were very dreadful on every side; and tho' it was very dark, we had light enough to see our own danger, and the danger of those near us. About One-a-clock the ships began to drive...

`By two a-clock we could hear guns firing in several parts of this road, as signals of distress; and tho' the noise was very great with the sea and wind, yet we could distinguish plainly, in some short intervals, the cries of poor souls in extremities.

`By four-a-clock we miss'd the MARY and the NORTHUMBERLAND, who rid not far from us, and found they were driven from their anchors; but what became of them, God knows...' (10)

Built: 1649 (3); 1650 (1)(4); 1658 (2)
Where Built: Woolwich
Commanding Officer: Captain Edward Hopson (1)(8)(10)
Crew: 270 (on board), i.e. 272 total (4); 273 (10)
Crew Lost: 269 (4)(8); all (1)(7); `above 500' (10): all but one of those on board (10)
Owner: Royal Navy
Armament: 60 guns; 64 guns (10)

Date of Loss Qualifier: Actual date of loss