HMS Romney was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, ordered to be built by commercial contract by Sir Henry Johnson on 16 November 1693 (along with her sistership, the Colchester - the contract for both ships was signed on 23 February 1694), and both ships were launched at the contractor's Blackwall Yard on 23 October 1694.

[1][2] Commanded by Captain William Coney,[3] Romney was wrecked on the Bishop & Clerks Rocks, off the Scilly Isles on 26 October 1707[1][4] when a disastrous navigational error sent Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell's fleet through dangerous reefs while on their way from Gibraltar to Portsmouth.

Four ships (Romney, Association, Firebrand and Eagle) were lost, with nearly 2,000[5] sailors.

The sole survivor was George Lawrence, who had worked as a butcher before joining the crew of Romney as quartermaster.

It was largely as a result of this disaster that the Board of the Admiralty instituted a competition for a more precise method to determine longitude.