The Last Days of the HMS Victory

Feb. 2, 2009 -- It was the stormiest of stormy nights when Admiral John Balchin ordered to fire the guns as a signal of distress. His 110-gun ship, the world's largest and finest vessel, was at the mercy of the winds and waves of the English Channel.

Throughout the night, inhabitants of the nearby Channel Island of Alderney near Cherbourg, France, heard the agonizing sounds of guns. Then, early in the morning, silence fell.

The HMS Victory, the pride of Britain's Royal Navy, had sunk with more than 1,100 seamen and 50 volunteers from the noblest families in England aboard. It was Oct. 5, 1744.

Not a soul survived.

WATCH VIDEO: Deep-sea explorers discuss the discovery of HMS Victory.

Believed to have crashed onto a group of rocks known as The Casquets, the HMS Victory was immortalized in her final moments by contemporary marine painter Peter Monamy. Lanterns alight and guns desperately firing, she sank, leaving a legacy of tears and a deep mystery around her final resting place.

Remains of the topmast were washed up on the island of Guernsey, but no other part of the ship was found -- until two years ago, when the wreck was discovered by a group of deep-sea explorers who released details of the wreck to the media this week.

Until now, it appeared that the HMS Victory, the Admiral and at least 900 aboard had simply vanished without trace.

"The whole nation expressed a deep and generous concern for this terrible misfortune; and his late majesty was graciously pleased to settle a pension ... on the admiral's lady during her life," reported a 1787 book, "The Lives of British Admirals."

The account reported that "to perpetuate the memory of so great a commander, a small but elegant monument was erected in Westminster Abbey, exhibiting the bust of the admiral and ... the unfortunate shipwreck of the Victory."

At almost 75, with nearly 60 years of naval service, Admiral Balchin was recognized as one of the best ship commanders of his day.

Indeed, in July of 1744 he was chosen for his "courage and conduct" to rescue a Mediterranean convoy blockaded by the French Brest fleet in the River Tagus at Lisbon.