Because of problems encountered during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48), the Admiralty attempted to modernise British ship designs with the 1745 Establishment.

[1][2] The largest warship in the world at the time, she measured more than 2,000 tons burthen and was the "eighteenth-century equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction".

[3] Royal George joined the Western Squadron (also known as the Channel Fleet) under Admiral Sir Edward Hawke in May 1756, just as the Seven Years' War began.

[4] Royal George was used as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Edward Boscawen in this period, including flying his flag during the Raid on Rochefort in September 1757.

Hawke commanded the fleet from Royal George at the Battle of Quiberon Bay[2] on 20 November 1759, where she sank the French ship Superbe.

Royal George was commanded by Captain William Bennett from March 1760, and she was present at the fleet review at Spithead in July that year.

[4] Vice-Admiral George Darby briefly replaced Harland in June 1779, then from August 1779 to December 1781 she was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir John Lockhart Ross.

She returned to service that summer, serving with the Channel Fleet under Admiral Francis Geary, and then George Darby again from the autumn.

[2] Further, the loading of a large number of casks of rum on the now-low port side created additional and, it turned out, unstable weight.

The carpenter then took his concern directly to the ship's captain, who agreed with him and gave the order to move the guns back into position.

The ship tilted heavily to port, causing a sudden inrush of water and a burst of air out the starboard side.

The barge along the port side which had been unloading the rum was caught in the masts as the ship turned, briefly delaying the sinking, but losing most of her crew.

[5] Royal George quickly filled with water and sank, taking with her around 900 people, including up to 300 women and 60 children who were visiting the ship in harbour.

It is a copy of the original plaque unveiled in 1965 by Earl Mountbatten of Burma, which was moved in 2006 to the Royal George Memorial Garden, also on the Esplanade.

A court-martial acquitted the officers and crew (many of whom had perished), blaming the accident on the "general state of decay of her timbers" and suggesting that the most likely cause of the sinking was that part of the frame of the ship gave way under the stress of the heel.

[8] Tracy concluded that an "alert officer of the watch would have prevented the tragedy ..."[8] This narrative was disputed by historian Hilary L. Rubinstein in 2020.

Several attempts were made to raise the vessel, both for salvage and because she was a major hazard to navigation, lying in a busy harbour at a depth of only 65 ft (20 m).

A dive by John Deane 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) north east of Royal George revealed timbers and guns from Mary Rose, the first time that its resting place had been located in centuries.

[3]: 9  In addition, a Corporal Jones made the first emergency swimming ascent after his air line became tangled and he had to cut it free.

[citation needed] An unfortunate milestone was the first medical account of a diver squeeze suffered by a Private Williams:[citation needed] the early diving helmets used had no non-return valves; this meant that if a hose became severed, the high-pressure air around the diver's head rapidly evacuated the helmet, causing tremendous negative pressure with extreme and sometimes life-threatening effects.

At the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in 1842, Sir John Richardson described the diving apparatus and treatment of diver Roderick Cameron following an injury that occurred on 14 October 1841 during the salvage operations.

[15] on an occasion that year the Royal Engineers set off a huge controlled explosion which shattered windows as far away as Portsmouth and Gosport.

[18] Several of the salvaged bronze cannon were melted down to form part of Nelson's Column in London's Trafalgar Square.

The bronze pieces, some weighing as much as 900 pounds (410 kg) are fixed to the column by the means of three large belts of metal lying in grooves in the stone.