Catastrophe at Spithead: The Sinking of the Royal George

Reviewed by C. Herbert Gilliland. How could a splendid 100-gun ship of the line, quietly anchored while preparing to deploy as flagship of one of Britain’s most admired admirals, suddenly capsize and go down? Yet that happened on August 29, 1782 at Spithead, the great roadstead of the British navy near Portsmouth.  In 1782 Great