Missing Rudder of HMS Invincible Warship Discovered 60 Meters from Wreckage After Battle of Cape Finisterre 200 Years Ago

The lost rudder of the HMS Invincible has been recovered from an area 200 feet away from the warship's wreckage. The blade, which measures 36 feet, was discovered on the seabed of the English Channel's Solent. According to reports, the rudder was found through a routine inspection of the area.

The Invincible warship was developed by French military scientists back in 1744. After the Battle of Cape Finisterre, the vehicle was captured by British forces. Then in 1758, an artillery ship carrying 74 weapons sank the warship quickly after its rudder was stuck in a sandbank.

The wreckage of the HMS Invincible was discovered in 1979. Since the location of the wreck was confirmed, about 2,000 artifacts from the ship were also collected from the site. However, its infamous rudder remains hidden until today.

HMS Invincible Warship

(Photo: Illustrated London News/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
An engraving of HMS Invincible, an Audacious-class twin-screw 14-gun broadside ironclad battleship at sea following her launch on 29 May 1869 at Robert Napier and Sons shipyard on the Clyde at Govan, Scotland. Original publication: Illustrated London News.

The rudder of the warship HMS Invincible was discovered through a routine search operation in Solent. The blade was sitting on the bed of the straight when the marine archaeologists detected it 40 years after the ship's main body was charted underwater.

Right after the discovery, the rudder will be kept in a specialized sandbag for protection against further damage. Meanwhile, the authorities are still looking for the best way to lift the thousand-year artifact from the Solent straight and ensure that no additional erosion will occur on the material.

During the first Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1747, the French ship was captured by the British empire. The event occurred just three years after the vehicle was assembled.

The Invincible warship was abandoned after being stuck to a sandbank between the Isle of Wight and Langstone. After three days of the damage, the vessel fell to the waters and became unusable.

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Lost Rudder Found in Solent

The wreckage remained untouched in the depths of Solent for more than 200 years, but thanks to a fisherman, the ship was identified and confirmed by experts. The divers saw the HMS Invincible about three nautical miles from Portsmouth.

A year after the findings, the government listed the ship as a Historic Shipwreck and was kept safe through the Protection of Wrecks Act of 1973.

Bournemouth University's marine archaeology specialist Dan Pascoe explained that their team had been searching for the Invincible's lost parts since 2010 through seabed surveys. Through the investigations, the experts could spot an anomaly just 60 meters off the stern of the warship. Pascoe continued that this was suspected of the rudder that vanished after the 17th-century events.

With the collaboration of the Maritime Archaeology Trust and the University of Southampton, the team carried out a diving activity that eventually confirmed the blade, which was buried seven meters or about 23 feet underwater.

Pascoe said that a special sandbag will cover the rudder for protection against erosion while they are still looking for potential solutions that would let them get the whole part for restoration, Daily Mail reports.