Greatest wreck since Mary Rose found off coast of Norfolk
HMS Gloucester, which sank in 1682 with the future king aboard, located by amateur divers
IT HAS lain undiscovered on the Norfolk sandbanks for hundreds of years since sinking during a nautical disaster that almost killed the heir to the throne.
Now, the wreck of THMS Gloucester has been found by amateur divers in what experts have described as the most significant maritime discovery since the Mary Rose.
The ship ran aground and sank in 1682, while carrying the future King James II.
Brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell found the warship in 2007 after spending four years combing thousands of miles of seabed, before embarking on a years-long identification process.
It took five years for historians to confirm that the wreck was the Gloucester. It was split down the keel, and remains of the hull are embedded in sand, complicating the excavation.
In 2012, the ship’s bell was used by the Receiver of Wreck and the Ministry of Defence to identify the vessel, as it had the date of 1681 engraved on it. But the discovery has been kept secret for a decade.
The extensive work required to protect the security of an “at-risk” site in international waters – the precise location will not be publicly disclosed – has meant that only now can the discovery be announced.
Only divers with official licences can access the site in an attempt to deter others from plundering it for valuable artefacts.
Researchers hope the wreckage will shed new light on a tragedy that had major political ramifications and, thanks to James’s survival, shaped the future of Britain for years to come.
“Because of the circumstances of its sinking, this can be claimed as the single most significant, historic maritime discovery since the raising of the Mary Rose in 1982,” said Prof Claire Jowitt, a world-leading authority on maritime cultural history and head of the accompanying research project at the University of East Anglia (UEA). The remains, which are around 27 miles off the coast of Great Yarmouth, will help researchers understand the circumstances of the Gloucester’s sinking, which were bitterly disputed at the time. Historians believe the behaviour of James, then the Duke of York, helped sow the seeds of rebellion among both a close adviser and the controller of the Royal Navy, who would later assist efforts to depose him.
The ship set sail from Portsmouth and picked up the Duke in Margate on his way to collect his pregnant wife from Edinburgh so the family could return to England because Charles II, his elder brother, was in poor health and had no legitimate children. On May 6, the Gloucester ran aground following a dispute involving the Duke, a former Lord High Admiral, who insisted the pilot followed his course. The Duke delayed abandoning ship, needlessly costing the lives of up to 250 people who, because of protocol, could not leave before royalty. He accepted no responsibility for the sinking, instead blaming the pilot, James Ayres, who was court martialed and imprisoned.
The improbable mission began in around 2003, when Lincoln Barnwell was flicking through a book on shipwrecks and read about HMS Gloucester.
He and his brother, printers by trade, had been passionate divers since their childhood and decided to see whether they could find the lost ship off the coast of their home county.
“I was heading down the anchor line and about three quarters of the way down, in really good water visibility, I started to see some shadows on the seabed and before you knew it, I was kneeling on the seabed literally in awe of the sight of these magnificent cannons,” Lincoln, 51, said.
An exhibition will be staged in Norwich between February and July next year, produced through a partnership of the Barnwell brothers, UEA and the Norfolk Museums Service, displaying finds from the wreck.