File:Earl of Abergavenny RMG PY8452.tiff

Print depicting exploration of the wreck of Earl of Abergavenny, with key and the image of Tonkins diving machine. Inscribed: "The present state of the Abergavenny in 10 fathoms of water & sunk 5' 6 in sand & Means using in recovering the property on board. Septr. 29th 1805." Below this inscription is a key describing numbered items in the picture: "1. Men on board the Boyne Sloop raising a box of copper. 2. Do [as above] - Raising a cable. 3. Men on a scaffold sawing the gun deck. 4. The Diver directing & sending up the passengers chest out of gun room. 5. Men on a scaffold holding the saw. 6. a Man on board the Ketch attending to the directions of the Diver which are conveyed to him through an air tube. 7. men holding the rope by which the Diver is suspended. 8. Part of the upper deck and end of the beams where sawn off. 9. Remaining part of the Gun Deck. 10. Opening to the after hold. 11. an opening thro' the poop deck quarter deck and gun deck 21 feet by 16, having taken the goods out of gun room and now about making way thro' orlope deck to the money". Below this is a dedication: "dedicated by permission to their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of Cumberland and Sussex". The image of Tonkins Diving Machine is in the top right corner, and has its own key: "1. The body of coppers. 2. Iron boots with joints of mail, covered with strong leather and canvas over it to prevent the leather being cut, the whole painted white. 3. The arms of strong leather. 4. The glass eye, size of a dessert plate 1 inch thick. 5 . The air tube. 6. An iron with joints and rope by which let down. 7. Lead weights to sink him."

The Earl of Abergavenny was heavily laden with over 400 passengers and a valuable cargo of porcelain and sterling worth £20,000. After various misadventures in the Chanel including a collision, the Abergavenny, having left Portsmouth and while being piloted through the Portland Roads on the 5th February during worsening weather and failing light, was driven onto the Shambles, a bank of sand and gravel about 1.9 miles (3km) out from Weymouth beach. The Commander John Wordsworth, brother of the poet William Wordsworth, was among those lost. The inscription details attempts to recover property using the latest diving technology.