17th-Century British Shipwreck Found in International Waters - Archaeology Magazine

NORWICH, ENGLAND—According to a BBC News report, researchers from the University of East Anglia announced the discovery of the wreckage of The Gloucester some 15 years ago by recreational divers who had been searching for it about 28 miles off the coast of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Launched in 1654, the ship was equipped with 54 guns and a crew of 280. In 1682, the vessel was transporting the Duke of York from Portsmouth to Edinburgh, where he was to conduct business with the Scottish Parliament as the heir to his older brother, King Charles II, when it ran aground while trying to navigate treacherous sandbanks in a gale. The duke escaped, but an estimated 130 to 250 crew members and passengers are thought to have died when the ship sank. The Duke of York, a Catholic, became King James II of England and King James VII of Scotland on his brother’s death in 1685, but he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband, William III of Orange. The shipwreck site included remains of the hull submerged in sand, a cannon, the ship’s bell, a pair of eyeglasses in a case, clothing, shoes, navigational equipment, unopened wine bottles, and animal bones. To read about a new study of the remains of some of the crew of the wreck of the Mary Rose, go to "Tudor Travelers."