Sketch of the 'Anne', circa 1685

The Wreck of the Warship Anne 1690
The Anne was named after Princess Anne (1665-1714). Launched at Chatham in 1678, she was 150 feet long, 40 feet wide, armed with 70 guns, and was one of Samuel Pepys’ ‘standard’ warships, of which 30 were built.

On Thursday, 3 July, the wind returned and the York reported that in the afternoon ‘it blew so hard we could not tow her so we took all the soldiers from them [i.e. the Anne] and then stood in between Farlee [i.e. Fairlight] and Winchelsea Castle, and run ashore the ship.’

Soon after beaching the ship at high tide, the crew waited until the evening low tide before they could walk ashore. That evening Tyrrell wrote to the Admiralty: ’I lie within pistol shot, at high water, of the shore, and at low water one may walk round the ship. If the French fireships do not come in and burn me I hope to save her, though the water comes into her as the tide ebbs and flows.’

The remains of the 'Anne', off Pett Level, 1984

The 'Anne' at Pett Level in 1984

The French ships attacked Hastings and Rye on the next day, Saturday, 5 July, and that afternoon Tyrrell reluctantly decided to burn the Anne so that she could not be taken as a prize. Curiously, it was soon after this inconclusive stage in the battle, when the French were winning, that they sailed away back to France.

The burnt-out remains of the Anne faded from memory, though around Fairlight local people never forgot her name. She was photographed in 1913 and later, but in 1974 treasure-hunters took a mechanical excavator out to the ship at low tide and dug into her remains.