‘Norfolk’s Mary Rose’ may be dragged from the depths

A ROYAL shipwreck off the Norfolk coast could be lifted from the seabed in a multi-million-pound operation similar to the recovery of the Mary Rose.

Lord Dannatt, the deputy lieutenant of Norfolk, said sections of the 50-gun frigate HMS Gloucester, which sank after running aground on May 6 1682, almost killing James II, the future king, could be hauled to the surface.

In 1982, more than 60million people watched on television as the wreck of the Mary Rose was brought to the surface after an 11-year salvage operation.

The are growing hopes a salvaged HMS Gloucester would prove similarly inspiring after its discovery was revealed on Friday.

Lord Dannatt, the former chief of the general staff of the Army, who will chair a charity caring for the Gloucester’s items, has revealed hopes a permanent local museum may house them.

He told the BBC: “Whether the hull is intact, I probably doubt it, but it is more likely it went down stern-first and the stern [rear] section is almost certainly intact.”

Lord Dannatt said the next stage would be to raise money to continue the excavation, adding: “Building and putting into place a permanent exhibition in Great Yarmouth would be fantastic for the town, fantastic for Norfolk and fantastic for the nation.”

Meanwhile, Norwich Castle Museum is planning an exhibition of some of the finds next year.

Brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell found the warship, after four years of combing thousands of miles of seabed.

It took another five years for historians to confirm that the wreck was the Gloucester. It was split down the keel and remains of the hull are submerged 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 it, as it was engraved with the date “1681”.

Researchers hope the wreckage will shed light on a tragedy that had political ramifications and helped shape the troubled reign of James II. Prof Claire Jowitt, an authority on maritime cultural history and leader of the accompanying research project at the University of East Anglia, said: “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.”