Cloudesley Shovell Admiral of the Fleet Sir Cloudesley Shovell ( c . November 1650 – 22 October or 23 October 1707 ) , was an English naval officer . Rising through the ranks and fighting in many of the important battles of the late 17th and early 18th centuries , he became a popular British hero , whose celebrated career was brought to an end in a disastrous shipwreck in the Isles of Scilly . He also served as MP for Rochester from 1695 until his death . Origin and family . The unusual Christian name of Cloudesley was the surname of his maternal grandmother Lucy Cloudisley , who was the daughter of Thomas Cloudisley . His father , John Shovell , a gentleman , was descended from a family who had property and standing in Norwich and his mother was descended from local gentry . Although not poor , the Shovells were by no means wealthy . In 1653 , when Cloudesley was three , his father died , leaving £100 to each of his three sons , Nathaniel , Thomas and Cloudesley . Cloudesley ' s widowed mother , Anne Jenkinson , remarried John Flaxman . In 1691 Cloudesley Shovell married Elizabeth , Lady Narborough ( née Hill ) , the widow of his former commander , Rear Admiral Sir John Narborough . Through her , he had two stepsons ( Sir John Narborough , 1st Baronet , and James Narborough ) who both entered naval careers and died aged 23 and 22 , in the sinking of HMS " Association " in 1707 . Shovell and his wife had two daughters : Elizabeth and Anne . Elizabeth married first the 1st Baron Romney whilst Anne married John Blackwood . Elizabeth Shovell , the former Lady Narborough , is buried in St Paulinus Church , Crayford , where there is a memorial to her and her husband . Cloudesley Shovell is also mentioned on the memorial to his Narborough stepsons in Knowlton Church . Their memorial displays a rendition of the grounding of HMS " Association " . Spelling of his name . There are many different versions used for the spelling of both his Christian name and surname . He used the spelling " Cloudesley Shovell " in his will written on 20 April 1701 when he was fifty . Both his father and his widow also spelt their surname as " Shovell " in their wills . The Christian name Cloudesley was often indistinctly signed which may have given rise to variety of spellings used by subsequent biographers . Nonetheless , spellings such as " Cloudisley " and " Shovel " are occasionally seen in books and articles on him . Life and career . Early life . Shovell was baptised at Cockthorpe , Norfolk , in 1650 . He went to sea as a cabin boy under the care of a paternal relative , Admiral Sir Christopher Myngs . Through family connections he joined the Royal Navy as a cabin boy when he was 14 . Service in the Royal Navy . Early in his career he went on voyages to the West Indies and South America and on 22 January 1672 he became Midshipman on the HMS " Royal Prince " and saw action at the Battle of Sole Bay off the Suffolk coast on 28 May when a combined British and French fleet was surprised and attacked by the Dutch , led by Admiral Michiel de Ruyter . Later in 1672 Shovell was promoted to Master ' s Mate aboard HMS " Fairfax " , then later the " HMS Harwich " and finally the HMS " Henrietta " . On 21 August 1673 , he again saw action , this time at the Battle of Texel . A combined British and French fleet attempting to land troops in the Netherlands was repelled by a smaller Dutch force , again led by Admiral de Ruyter . After Admiral Sir Christopher Myngs died from wounds received during the Second Dutch War , Shovell ’ s career continued through the influence of another distant relation , Sir John Narborough . Shovell set himself to study navigation , and , owing to his able seamanship and brave and open - hearted disposition , became a general favourite and obtained quick promotion . On 25 September 1673 he was appointed as Second Lieutenant aboard the " Henrietta " and sailed to North Africa . In the Mediterranean he served under Narborough against the Barbary pirates . In 1675 he transferred to the " Harwich " and took part in a year long action against the pirate stronghold at Tripoli . On 14 January 1676 , Shovell lead a surprise attack on the pirates sinking a number of their ships . For this action he received the sum of £80 from his commanding officer Sir John Narborough . Two months later a second successful raid against the pirates was undertaken , for which Shovell was awarded a gold medal from King Charles II himself , and in a letter from the Admiralty , Samuel Pepys recorded the king ' s satisfaction with Shovell ’ s actions . This was the beginning of his rise to prominence . On 16 April 1677 Shovell was again appointed First Lieutenant aboard HMS " Plymouth " and just six months later he received his first command as captain of HMS " Sapphire " . He spent the next nine years in command of various ships in the Mediterranean carrying out operations against the Barbary pirates . In May 1689 Shovell served in the Nine Years ' War under Admiral Herbert . As captain of HMS " Edgar " he was present at the first fight of the Battle of Bantry Bay when a French fleet was landing troops against King William III . After the battle , Shovell and his fellow commander John Ashby were knighted by the king . In October , he patrolled the area between Ireland and the Scilly Islands . In 1690 Sir Cloudesley convoyed William III across St George ' s Channel to Ireland , was promoted Rear Admiral of the Blue and fought in the Battle of Beachy Head . In 1691 he married Lady Elizabeth Narborough , the widow of his former commanding officer . In 1692 he was appointed Rear Admiral of the Red and took part in the Battle of Cape Barfleur in May . He joined Admiral Russell under whom he greatly distinguished himself at La Hougue , by being the first to break through the enemy ' s line aboard HMS " Prince " . During this action at Barfleur , Shovell was injured in the thigh and suffered from blood poisoning but was able to recuperate back in England . Not long after , when Admiral Russell was superseded , Shovell was put in joint command of the fleet with Admiral Killigrew and Admiral Delaval . In 1693 and 1694 he was involved in further actions against the French in the English Channel . In 1696 he was promoted to Admiral of the Blue and in 1702 Admiral of the White by Queen Anne . Sir Cloudesley was a particular favourite of the Queen . Politician and benefactor . In 1694 Shovell set up residence with his wife at May Place in Crayford , Kent , and in 1695 was elected Member of Parliament for Rochester . In Crayford he was responsible for the restoration of the parish church , St . Paulinus . Shovell served as MP for Rochester until his death . During that time he was a great benefactor to the city , providing at his own expense the fine decorated plaster ceilings in the Guildhall and the market bell , clock and decorated brick facade for the Butchers ' Market , ( now the Corn Exchange ) . All these gifts survive , except the clock which , by 1771 , had deteriorated so badly that a replacement was installed by Rochester Corporation . Shovell was also Commissioner of the Sewers , responsible for the upkeep of the embankments of the Thames between Deptford and Gravesend . Commander - in - Chief of the British fleets . In 1702 Shovell brought home the spoils of the French and Spanish fleets from Vigo after their capture by Admiral Rooke , and in January 1704 he was named Rear - Admiral of England . Later that year he served under Admiral Rooke in the Mediterranean and cooperated in the taking of Gibraltar . On 13 January 1705 Shovell became Admiral of the Fleet and on 1 May the same year he was given joint command with the 3rd Earl of Peterborough of an expeditionary force to the Mediterranean , during which Spanish port of Barcelona was besieged and captured . In November 1706 his career reached its peak when he was appointed Commander - in - Chief of the British fleets whilst at Lisbon . In summer of 1707 he commanded the naval part of the unsuccessful Battle of Toulon . During the War of the Spanish Succession , a combined British , Austrian and Dutch force under the command of Prince Eugene besieged and attempted to take the French port of Toulon . During this campaign , which was fought from 29 July to 21 August , Great Britain dispatched a fleet to provide naval support . Led by Shovell , the ships sailed to the Mediterranean , attacked Toulon and also managed to inflict damage on the French fleet caught in the siege . The campaign was unsuccessful though and the alliance ultimately defeated by Franco - Spanish units . The British fleet was subsequently ordered to return home , and set sail from Gibraltar to Portsmouth in late October . Death in the Scilly naval disaster . When returning with the fleet to England after the campaign to Toulon , Shovell ' s ship , HMS " Association " , at 8 pm on 22 October ( November 2 , by the modern calendar ) 1707 , struck on the rocks near the Isles of Scilly along with several other ships , and was seen by those on board HMS " St George " to go down in three or four minutes ' time , not a soul being saved of 800 men that were on board . With four large ships ( HMS " Association " , HMS " Eagle " , HMS " Romney " and HMS " Firebrand " ) and nearly 2 , 000 sailors lost that night , the Scilly naval disaster was one of the greatest maritime disasters in British history . It was later determined that the main cause of the disaster was the navigators ' inability to accurately calculate their longitude . What exactly happened to Sir Cloudesley Shovell has never been discovered . Considering that his body , and the bodies of both his stepsons were all found in the same cove , almost seven miles from where his ship was wrecked , the most likely scenario is that Shovell left his ship in one of its boats , along with his two Narborough stepsons , the captain of the " Association " , Edmund Loades , and a pet dog and that they were drowned while trying to get to shore . Shovell ' s body , along with the bodies of his two stepsons and that of Captain Loades , washed up on Porthellick Cove on St Mary ' s the following day . A small memorial was later erected at this site . Shovell ' s body was identified by the Purser of HMS " Arundel " who knew the admiral well . It was identified by " a black mole under his left ear , also by the first joint of one of his forefingers being broken inwards . He had likewise a shot in his right arm , another in his left thigh " . The circumstances under which the his remains were found gave rise to stories ( see below ) . Shovell was temporarily buried on the beach at Porthellick Cove ( see image ) . By order of Queen Anne the body was later exhumed and brought back aboard HMS " Salisbury " to Plymouth , where it was embalmed by Dr James Yonge . It was later carried in state to London . During the journey from the West Country , large crowds turned out to pay their respects . On 22 December 1707 he was interred in Westminster Abbey . His large marble monument in the south choir aisle was sculpted by Grinling Gibbons . His two stepsons were buried in Old Town Church on St Mary ’ s . The Council of the Scilly Isles commemorated the tercentenary of the disaster in 2007 . Legends of the disaster . It is said that Shovell was alive , at least barely , when he reached the shore of Scilly at Porthellick Cove , but was murdered by a woman for the sake of his priceless emerald ring which had been given to him by a close friend , Captain James Lord Dursley . At that time , the Scillies had a wild and lawless reputation . According to a letter written in 1709 by Edmund Herbert , a young man sent to Scilly by Shovell ' s family to help locate and recover items belonging to the admiral , Sir Cloudesley ' s body was first found by two women " stript of his shirt " and " his ring was also lost off his hand , which however left ye impression on his finger " . Shovell ' s widow Elizabeth had offered a large reward for the recovery of any family property . It is claimed that the murder only came to light some thirty years later when the woman , on her deathbed , confessed to a clergyman to having killed the admiral and produced the stolen ring , which was sent back to the 3rd Earl of Berkeley . , although several historians doubt the murder story as there is no indication that the ring was recovered and the legend stems from a romantic and unverifiable deathbed confession . Another legend alleges that a common sailor on the flagship tried to warn Shovell that the fleet was off course but Shovell had him hanged at the yardarm for inciting mutiny . The story first appeared in the Scilly Isles in 1780 with the common sailor being a Scilly native who recognized the waters as being close to home but was punished for warning the Admiral . It was claimed that grass will never grow on the grave where Shovell was first buried at Porthellick Cove because of his tyrannical act against an islander . The myth was embellished in the 19th century when the punishment became instant execution and the sailor ' s knowledge of the fleet ' s position was attributed to superior navigational skills instead of local knowledge . While it is possible that a sailor may have debated the vessel ' s location and feared for its fate ( such debates were common upon entering the English Channel as noted by Samuel Pepys in 1684 ) , the story has been repeatedly discredited by naval scholars who noted the lack of any evidence in contemporary documents , its fanciful stock conventions and dubious origins . However the myth was revived in 1997 when author Dava Sobel presented it as an unqualified truth in her book " Longitude : The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time " . In popular culture . Shovell was portrayed by English actor Jonathan Coy in the 2000 television movie " Longitude " . He is also referred to in Patrick O ' Brian ' s novel " Blue at the Mizzen " in which Mr Woodbine recalls running for the Scillies under full topsails with the wind and hoping not to run onto the reef " like Sir Cloudesley Shovell " . In Robert Goddard ' s novel " Name to a Face " , the recovery of the ring Shovell was wearing when the " Association " sank is central to the plot . A Halifax tavern named for Shovell appears in Paul Marlowe ' s " Knights of the Sea " . There is psychedelic heavy metal band called ' Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell ' that takes its name from the historical figure . The leader of the moles in C . S . Lewis ' " Prince Caspian " is named Clodsley Shovel .