Baker returned to England with the squadron of which so many of the ships were lost in the Scilly naval disaster on 22 October 1707 , resulting in the deaths of nearly 2,000 men and Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell , and , having arrived at the Nore , was ordered to refit and keep the men on board with a view to their being sent to other ships . Baker remonstrated ; he thought their case was hard , and that they ought to be allowed to go home . ' Most of them , ' he wrote , on 3 November , ' have been with me in this ship for almost six years , and many have followed me from ship to ship for several years before . ' It does not appear that any good came of the application , which the admiralty probably considered a bit of maudlin and absurd sentimentality
Scilly naval disaster
Scilly naval disaster of 1707
John Baker (Royal Navy officer)