4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL, I3I 



the beautifully molded contours of an eighteenth-century barrel were 

 revealed (pi. i6). The appearance was deceptive, however, for while 

 the physical form of the barrel was perfect it was evident that the 

 surface of the iron had been oxidized deeply. 



Two more clues to the identity of the ship were furnished by the 

 barrel. On the second reinforce over the trunnions was a crowned 

 rose, and in the muzzle were the remains of a wooden tompion. The 

 crowned rose was an insigne employed by the Tudor and Stuart 

 monarchs of England and was not used as the principal mark on royal 

 artillery after the death of Queen Anne in 1714. The fact that the 

 tompion was in the barrel indicated that the ship had run aground 

 through accident or storm and not as an aftermath to a naval engage- 

 ment. The crowned rose enabled us to estimate the date before which 

 the ship sank. Since the normal life of an iron barrel on shipboard 

 was usually not over 35 or 40 years, the barrel had probably not been 

 in active service after 17 14 plus 35 or 40 years, or 1749- 1754. It was 

 therefore assumed that the ship must have sunk before the year 1750. 



The barrel was the last important object recovered from the wreck 

 site in 1951, and we now had all the evidence that we could expect to 

 recover that year. This evidence had told us that the ship was a 

 British warship, had sunk between 1720 and 1750, had 6- and 12- 

 pounders in her main battery, and had gone down as the result of an 

 accident and not as a sequel to a naval action. We knew, of course, 

 that the reef on which the ship had sunk was called "Looe Reef," but 

 we had not suspected a connection between the name and the wreck 

 itself. 



After my return to Washington I began a search of the ship casualty 

 lists for the eighteenth century published in Clowes "The Royal 

 Navy," and found the entry — "1743 Looc 44 guns, Capt. Ashby 

 Utting, Lost in America." Further research indicated that she carried 

 6- and 12-pounders. The conclusion was obvious — the ship we had 

 investigated was the Loo whose wreck had given her name to the reef. 

 That night I phoned Dr. and Mrs. Crile in Cleveland and they immedi- 

 ately called a friend in London. Within a week the Public Record 

 Office had yielded a letter written by Captain Utting at Port Royal, 

 S. C, February 15, 1743/44,^ in which he described the wreck of his 

 ship. A year later I was in London digging out all the documents in 

 the Public Record Office relating to the ship. The account that fol- 

 lows is based on letters, the Navy List, the Loo's pay lists and muster 



8 The legal year Ijegan March 15. The calendar year was 1744. (See Appen- 

 dix B for UUing's letter.) 



