User:Maralia/HMS De Braak

HMS De Braak was a 16-gun brig-rigged sloop-of-war of the Royal Navy that capsized and sank in a storm at the mouth of the Delaware River in 1798.

The 255 ton De Braak was built as a single-masted cutter in Holland prior to 1781, and operated under the auspices of the Batavian Republic. In 1795 as she put into Falmouth harbor, war was declared between England and the Republic, and the ship was impounded, refitted as a brig-sloop, and taken into service in the Royal Navy on June 16 1796, Captain James Drew in command. After a year and a half spent protecting trade in the English Channel and Irish Sea, HMS De Braak set sail in February 1798 as an escort to a convoy of ships headed to America.

Sinking
On May 28 1798, De Braak and a Spanish ship she had captured, the Don Francisco Xavier, arrived at Cape Henlopen near the mouth of the Delaware River. A river pilot was brought on board to navigate upriver, but a freak storm blew in. HMS De Braak had not shortened her sails, and was completely laid over by strong winds. She quickly took on water, and capsized within minutes. Captain Drew, 34 crew members, and 12 Spanish prisoners drowned; most of the survivors were taken on the Don Francisco Xavier, with a few reaching the shore.

In late July 1798, HMS Assistance was sent to assess if the De Braak was salvageable. As the sloop's upper rigging remained above the waterline and visible from the shore, she was easily located. A salvage operation extended throughout the summer, but was ultimately unsuccessful.

By 1805, the rigging of the De Braak was no longer visible, and her exact location was lost. Because the De Braak had captured Don Francisco Xavier, rumors persisted that she had sunk with Spanish treasure.

Discovery and salvage
In April 1984 the wreck of HMS De Braak was located and identified by the commercial salvage company Sub-Sal. After receiving legal custody of the wreck, Sub-Sal began salvage operations in 1985. In a serious departure from accepted practice, Sub-Sal raised the hull of the ship with cables rather than a supporting platform, causing irreparable damage to the hull itself, and allowing numerous artifacts to spill from the ship as she was lifted. Rather than excavate the wreck site, Sub-Sal ruthlessly dredged the sea floor to search for treasure. An encrusted object was unceremoniously dumped back into the sea after it was ruled out as possible treasure; later review of filming from the salvage effort identified the object as a Brodie stove, of which there is only one other archaeological specimen.

Irreparable damage was done to the wreck site, and state archaeologists decried the destruction of the historic shipwreck. The raised hull was moved first to a concrete cofferdam at Lewes, and then in 1990 to a wet storage building. Sub-Sal reportedly violated numerous state and federal laws related to the disposal of artifacts and human remains, and courts awarded custody of the wreck to the State of Delaware in 1992. While over 26,000 artifacts were recovered, their value was only historical; it was estimated that Sub-Sal had spent $3 million USD in a search for treasure that recovered historical objects worth a mere $300,000.

The De Braak was visited by Peter Weir, and her artifact collection served as a resource for his film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.