Most boaters sail past the Boyne buoy without giving it a second thought - but it marks a local catastrophe... The Boyne Buoy (Fl.(4) G 10s), marking the Bar Channel between Castle Buoy and Horse Sand Buoy, came into being to mark the remains of the wreckage of HMS Boyne. HMS Boyne, was a 98 gun second rate ship of the line. She was the first of a class of similar ships built to the designs of Sir Edward Hunt in 1783. Construction took place at Woolwich over a period of 7 years. She was launched on the 27 th July 1790 and commissioned into the Royal Navy the following month. HMS Boyne was 182 feet (55m) in length along the gun deck, had a beam of 50 feet four and 5/8 inches (15.35m) and a draught in excess of 21 feet 9 inches (6.63m). She was a fully rigged ship (3 stepped masts, square rigged) and had a 'burthen' of 2,021 tons. Her armament comprised 28 x 32 pounder cannon on the main gundeck, 30 x 18 pounder cannon on the middle gundeck and 30 x 12 pounder cannons ...
