Explorers and historians tell the world about the discovery of the wreck of a royal warship that sank in 1682 while carrying a future king of England, Ireland and Scotland. The HMS Gloucester, traveling from the south of England to Scotland, ran aground off the sandy shores of Great Yarmouth on the east coast of England. It sank within an hour, killing about 130 to 250 crew members and passengers. James Stewart, son of King Charles I, survived. He continued to reign as King James II of England and Ireland and as King James V of Scotland from 1685 to 1688, when he was overthrown by the Glorious Revolution. The Gloucester wreck was found in 2007 by brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell and others after a four-year investigation. It was firmly identified in 2012 with the discovery of the ship’s bell. The discovery was made public only on Friday due to the time it took to confirm the ship’s identity and the need to protect the historic site. Claire Jowitt, a marine historian at the University of East Anglia, said the shipwreck was “one of the most” almost “significant moments in English history. The sinking of Gloucester almost caused the death of the Catholic successor to the Protestant throne at a time of great political and religious tension in Britain. “If he had died, we would have had a very different British and European history as a result,” Jowitt said. “I believe this is a time capsule that offers the opportunity to learn so much about life on a 17th century ship. The royal nature of the ship is absolutely incredible and unique,” he added. He believes that the shipwreck is the most important naval discovery by Mary Rose, the warship from the naval Tudor of King Henry VIII. Mary Rose was overthrown with a crew of about 500 in 1545 at Solent, a strait between the Isle of Wight and the British mainland. A huge rescue operation brought it back to the surface in 1982. There are no current plans to raise the Gloucester wreck because much of it is buried under the sand. “We just reached the top of an iceberg,” said Julian Barnwell. Items rescued from the wreck include clothes, shoes, navigation equipment and several bottles of wine. A bottle bears a stamp with the emblem of the Legge family – the ancestors of George Washington, the first president of the United States. The coat of arms was the forerunner of the Stars and Stripes flag. An exhibition is scheduled for next spring at the Norwich Castle Museum and Gallery to display findings from the wreck and share ongoing research.
