Saved from the wreckage

They call it Norfolk’s Mary Rose, though the wreck of HMS Gloucester is not so old, nor was her loss in 1682 quite so dramatic. Old shoes, a pipe with tobacco in and a urine bottle possibly used by the Duke of York, later James II, are among objects rescued from the sea floor off Great Yarmouth. Scores drowned, but not the heir to the throne, or his companion in a ship’s boat, John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough – victor in momentous battles. The incident was made the more vivid through an eyewitness account by Samuel Pepys, accompanying the Duke in his own yacht, Katherine. The diarist was thought lost till he wrote two days later from their destination, Edinburgh. It was as Pepys remarked “the talk of the town”. Then we forgot, and it took years of determination and archaeological skill to retrieve the evidence.