It’s Scilly’s location which makes it so significant. They lie at a junction of five international shipping routes, making them a ‘ship park’ of global repute. An ingenious and inventive island population built their lives around passing ships, which anchored in the straits between islands while awaiting the right winds, says Richard Larn OBE, who lives on St. Mary’s.

“By the 1300s, Tresco became an important island habitation of Scilly, when shipping started to call from the continent,” he says. “It gave locals the opportunity to sell them fresh water, fresh vegetables, meat, beer, anything.” Locals also made a trade in boat repairs and pilotage (using local knowledge to navigate ships).

Tudor defences, like The Old Blockhouse fortress settlement at Old Grimsby, started to protect ships anchored in Old Grimsby Roads. As ships got bigger, and threats of European invasion mounted (particularly in the wake of the Spanish Armada) the importance shifted to Tresco Channel, defended by King Charles’ Castle. Attention was then focused on St. Mary’s Roads, when Sir Francis Godolphin built Star Castle, its Garrison walls and 120 cannons (something which English Heritage describes as “one of the most remarkable and impressive coastal defence systems in England”). The Spanish threat never materialised, but the Garrison was periodically enlarged to defend the islands throughout the English Civil War and World War II.

The islands also became an isolation hospital (the Pest House on St. Helen’s was built in 1764) and cholera quarantine station up to the early 19th Century, marking it as an important gateway to the UK. Most importantly for the small population, ship repairs gave way to a century-long boom in boat-building on St. Mary’s from the late 1700s. At the height of boatbuilding days, St. Mary’s had 32 inns. The population doubled. In the 1880s and 1890s, flower farming took off. Times were good.

With the ships came the wrecks, almost 1,000 in all around the islands’ 100 miles of coastline. Lighthouses saved some from perishing, but treacherous seas and shallow, submerged rock reefs brought casualties in their thousands.

At the start of the 18th Century (1707), four ships perished on Scilly’s rocks from Royal Navy’s HMS Association fleet. “It was the second ‘treasure ship’ found in British waters, including eight bronze canons and gold/silver coins worth around £4 million in today’s money,” says Richard, also a former Royal Navy and commercial diver who salvaged the sunken fleet in the 1960s. “It was also the second worst tragedy in Royal Navy history,” he adds.

More than 1,450 bodies washed ashore for weeks to come, including that of Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell.

Today, you can find the small, lonely stone at Porth Hellick that marks the spot where Sir Cloudesley Shovell, Admiral of the stricken Royal Navy fleet, was washed ashore on 22nd October 1707.

Also, not to be missed is the impressive Valhalla Collection when you visit Tresco Abbey Garden. It contains some 30 colourful figureheads mostly from 19th Century merchant sailing vessels and early steamships wrecked off the Isles of Scilly.

Seek out Scilly’s maritime expert, Richard Larn OBE, and join one of his absorbing walks through Hugh Town and around the Garrison. Or attend his fascinating weekly evening lecture in the Methodist Hall.