In October 1707 the large Mediterranean squadron - 15 ships of the line, five frigates and a yacht - under Sir Cloudesley Shovell, Admiral of the Fleet, was returning home for the winter after operations at Toulon. Crossing the Bay of Biscay, weather was overcast for several days, preventing observations, and their estimated position was further north and east than estimated. On the evening of the 22nd Shovell's flagship, 'Association', struck the outer Gilstone Ledge of the Isles of Scilly and sank immediately, while the 'Eagle', 'Firebrand' and 'Romne'y also struck and were lost nearby. Over 1300 men died and there were only 26 survivors, not including Shovell who was drowned and his body washed ashore, with his stepsons Sir John and James Narborough. Thirty years later a local woman stated on her deathbed she had found him still just alive and finished him off for the emerald ring on his finger, but there are reasons to doubt the truth of this. The 'Association' had been carrying considerable treasure and part of the wreck remained above water for some time. There was much salvage activity, including an official operation in 1709. The wreck was relocated in the 19th century then forgotten until Royal Navy divers found it again in 1967, which sparked a period of further salvage in which various cannon and a large quantity of coin and other artefacts were raised amid controversy and competition, all demonstrating a need for new legislation to protect historic wrecks from commercial exploitation under salvage law as it then existed. This bronze gun was brought up in 1970 and sold at auction in Penzance, with other material, and was purchased by the Tresco estate for its 'Valhalla' figurehead collection, then privately owned. It is a French 17th-century 18-pounder apparently from the reign of Louis XIV (reigned 1643-1715) bearing the French Royal arms with an 'L' monogram, the badges of the orders of St Michel and the Saint-Esprit, and the crossed anchors of the Marine Royale. It may have been captured by Shovell at Vigo in 1702, or possibly Toulon in 1707. If the latter it could have been hold cargo, going home as prize. However, it has been suggested by Dr John Taylor (who in 2009 obtained another similar gun raised earlier and firstsold in 1969) that those taken at Vigo - as his is marked - had been integrated into the ship's armament as chase guns, fore and aft. There is logic to this, as they were probably not suitable for broadside use in a ship which had standard iron armament, while chase positions would also have showed them off better as prestigious prizes of war. In the long term the 'Association' disaster had two good effects. It intensified 18th-century work to find a reliable means of establishing longitude at sea - though, in fact, this problem had little specific to do with the loss, while in our own time the controversial aspects of the salvage and sale of material from the Scilly wrecks helped led to the 1973 Act for the Protection of Historic Wrecks. Shovell is buried in Westminster Abbey, where his rather effete monument (carved by Grinling Gibbons) appears considerably at odds with his known character. The Museum would not have bought this gun given the circumstances of its retrieval: it came into the collection incidentally later on, as part of the general 'Valhalla' holding of figureheads after this was accepted by HM Government in lieu of tax in 1979 following the death of Lt-Cdr Tom Dorrien-Smith of Tresco Abbey, the 1970 purchaser at Penzance. 'Association' was a second-rate ship of 90 guns, 1459 tons (old measurement), built at Portsmouth Dockyard on 1697. Her captain at loss is variably given as Edward Loades or Samuel Whitaker and both were drowned in her, but one commanded the ship while the other was 'second captain' or 'captain of the fleet' (that is, Shovell's staff captain). [PvdM amended 5/14]