Captain John Lawford was a distinguished navel commander stationed at Jamaica in 1790. In 1793 Britain was at war with France ( French Revolutionary Wars) when Captain Lawford was given a new command. The ship was a 36-gun frigate named HMS Covert, formerly l’Inconstante, that had recently been captured as a ‘prize’ from the French Navy. Capt. Lawfords assignment was to escort a fleet of merchant vessels from Jamaica to Britain. Unfortunately the convoy was just three days out when HMS Convert, followed by the other nine ships struck a reef off Grand Cayman island and sank. The incident was the worst maritime disaster in the history of the Cayman Islands.
On February 7, 1794 a fleet of fifty eight merchant vessels with cargo’s of wood, cotton, sugar and rum, plus Royal Navy escort ships led by the fleets flagship HMS Convert left Port Royal Jamaica. They were using an 18th century trade route, east of the Cayman Islands, past the western tip of Cuba. At some point during the early part of their journey the convoy became disorganized with the merchant vessels being ahead and not behind their navy escort. As the convoy passed Grand Cayman Island during the night, the leading merchant ship sighted breakers, meaning a reef. The merchant fired a distress signal which caught the attention of the lookout aboard HMS Convert. With high seas and a windward shore Captain Lawford aboard the Convert knew the convoy was in peril and in danger of foundering along Grand Cayman’s reefs.
The Convert fired off a distress signal in the hope that the others vessel could avert disaster. The Captains of the others ships may have believed that the convoy was under attack from Pirates. For that reason they stayed behind HMS Convert and failed to disperse until it was too late. During the confusion a merchant vessel collided with the bow of HMS Convert, which forced the frigate over the reef. By the following morning ten ships of the convoy, including the Convert, had struck the treacherous reef and foundered. Eight seaman had drowned.
The loss of the heavily armed Convert and nine merchantmen loaded with goods during wartime was a serious blow to Britain. However, the population of the Cayman Islands benefited greatly in the wrecking operation that followed. The Admiralty subsequently acquitted by court martial Captain Lawford of any responsibility in the disaster. Such was the good fortune of the privileged classes that whether by merit or bias Captain Lawford’s career did not suffer from the incident. Four years later he was given command of the 64-gun HMS Agincourt and by 1811 he was promoted to rear-admiral, eventually becoming a full admiral.
http://factoidz.com/the-wreck-of-the-te ... n-islands/
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