Historedia
EuropeEvent

Wreck of HMS Eurydice

When
1878
Where
Sandown Bay
Episodes
1

HMS Eurydice, a 26-gun Royal Navy frigate, sank in a snowstorm off the Isle of Wight on 24 March 1878. The vessel, refitted for training service, was returning from Bermuda when it capsized in Sandown Bay. This event resulted in the loss of all but two of the 319 crew members, marking one of Britain's worst peacetime naval disasters.

Episodes

  1. 24 March 1878 · Sandown BaySinking in Snowstorm

    HMS Eurydice capsized and sank in Sandown Bay during a heavy snow storm off the Dunnose headland on 24 March 1878.

Background and detail

Background. HMS Eurydice was a fast 26-gun frigate designed with a shallow draught for shallow waters. In 1877, she was refitted at Portsmouth and Cowes for seagoing service as a training ship. After being recommissioned under Captain Marcus Augustus Stanley Hare, she sailed from Portsmouth on 13 November 1877 for a tour of the North America and West Indies Station.

Voyage. The ship began its return voyage from the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda for Portsmouth on 6 March 1878. Following a very fast passage across the Atlantic, the vessel encountered severe weather conditions in the English Channel near the Isle of Wight, leading to its catastrophic sinking.

Memorial. Memorials to the disaster exist in the churchyard at Christ Church, The Broadway, Sandown, and at Shanklin Cemetery in Lake, where seven crew members are buried. The ship was immediately replaced by HMS Juno, a 26-gun frigate of identical tonnage.

People involved

Sources

  1. HMS Eurydice (1843) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-13

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.