A royal warship that sank off the east coast of Britain more than 300 years ago while carrying a future king was unveiled on Friday by investigators who had kept the discovery a secret for 15 years to protect the shipwreck from damage.
In 1682, King James II of England, then Duke of York, narrowly escaped the sinking ship The Gloucester, which crashed off the east coast of England. to hit a sandbar. He became King of England and James VII of Scotland three years later.
“The discovery promises to fundamentally change the understanding of seventeenth-century social, maritime, and political history,” said Claire Jowitt, a professor of modern cultural history at the University of East Anglia.
“It is a prime example of underwater cultural heritage of national and international importance.”
A glass stamp with the coat of arms of the Legge family, ancestors of the first president of the United States, George Washington, is shown after being recovered from the wreck of The Gloucester. (Norfolk / Reuters Historic Shipwrecks)
Its final location, about 45 miles off the coast of Great Yarmouth, was a mystery until it was discovered by diving brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell in 2007, after a four-year search.
“On my descent to the seabed, the first thing I saw was a large cannon placed on white sand; it was impressive and very beautiful,” said Lincoln Barnwell.
In this undated photo provided by the University of East Anglia, brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell look at the artifacts they found in the wreck. HMS Gloucester ran aground while sailing on the sandbanks of the city of Great Yarmouth on the east coast of England. (University of East Anglia / The Associated Press)
The wreck revealed several historic artifacts, including a glass-stamped bottle with the coat of arms of the Legge family, ancestors of the first president of the United States, George Washington.
“Because the ship sank so quickly, no one would have rescued anything,” Jowitt said, describing it as “a fantastic time capsule.”
Other artifacts include navigation equipment, personal items, clothing and bottles of wine, some with their contents intact.
The university estimated that between 130 and 250 people could have died in the incident, which they said threatened to change the course of history.
Six years after the collapse, the Catholic James II was ousted by the Protestant William of Orange in the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688, paving the way for the future constitutional monarchy in Britain.
This undated photo provided by Royal Museums shows the artwork The Wreck of the Gloucester in front of Yarmouth on May 6, 1682, a work created by Johan Danckerts. (Royal Museums / The Associated Press)