The 'Royal Captain' was an
East Indiaman under command of Captain
Edward Berrow, belonging to the
British East India Company.
On December 17,
1773, at 2:30 in the morning, the 44 metre, 860 ton
schooner
struck an uncharted reef in the
South China Sea and even though the crew managed to free the ship two times, a third collision with the reef sealed her fate and she sunk with her load of Chinese
porcelain,
tea and
silk.
All but three crewmen survived the sinking and were picked up by the British ship ''Union.''
Discovery and Salvage
In 1999, an expedition lead by
Franck Goddio, utilising the ''
Ocean Voyager'' as well as two high-tech 2-person submarines of the ''
Deep Rover'' class, capable of diving 1000 metres, located the wreck in a depth of about 330 metres and salvaged a large part of the remaining freight.