H.M.S. Astraea (Astrea in the stamp design). 5th rate, 32 guns, 703 tons (b.m.). Dimensions 126 ft. x 36 ft. built by Fabian, East Cowes, in 1781. She was wrecked on March 24, 1808, off Anegada, in bad visibility, when she struck a reef Four men were lost. The wreck still exists.
Brirtish Virgin Is SG251
HMS Astrea depicted on the $1 value had participated in 1796 in the capture of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Grenada from the French. In 1806, a cruise in Scandinavian waters proved nearly fatal to Astrea, and she had to be refitted in Copenhagen. By late 1807 was ordered to proceed to the West Indies where she ended her glorious career on the Anegada Reefs (Virgin Islands) on 23 May 1808. Only four men lost their lives in the ordeal, and while the Court Marshal following did not attribute any blame to Captain Heywood, one of his men, George Wright, was sentenced “to suffer death by being hanged by the neck until he is dead.” The wreck site off Pelican Point, Anegada, was surveyed in 1967 by a diving team that included Captain Bert Kilbride.
BVI Philatelic
Astraea HMS
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aukepalmhof
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Re: Astraea HMS
On the stamp is given ASTREA but the Royal Navy name is ASTRAEA on British Virgin Islands 1972 0.25c sg270, scott?
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