The 1805 Dispatches #22.04 August 2022 3 of 9 WRECK OF HMS GLOUCESTERDISCOVERED This is an edited version of the story in the Smithsonian Magazine on June 14 2022: Almost 350 years after the sinking of HMSGloucester, experts have finally pinpointed the exact location of the ill-fated ship. Brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell found the wreck off the coast of Norfolk County in 2007; authorities confirmed the vessel’s identity in 2012 after analysing a ship’s bell recovered from the wreckage but kept its discovery under wraps until they were able to properly secure the site. The owners of a Norfolk printing service, the Barnwells are licensed divers who searched for – and later explored – Gloucester in their free time, conducting more than 200 dives to the wreck site over the past 15 years, reports Liz Coates for the Great Yarmouth Mercury. “We were starting to believe that we were not going to find [the ship],” says Lincoln in the statement. “We’d dived so much and just found sand. On my descent to the seabed, the first thing I spotted were large cannon laying on white sand. It was awe-inspiring and really beautiful.” In a statement, Claire Jowitt, a maritime history expert at the University of East Anglia (UEA), who recently published a paper on theGloucester in theEnglish Historical Review, deems the find “the single most significant historic maritime discovery since the raising of MaryRose.” (A favourite warship of Henry VIII, MaryRose sank in 1545 at the Battle of Solent and was recovered to great fanfare in 1982.) Speaking with the LondonTimes’ Jack Blackburn, Jowitt adds, “This time capsule under the sea is just incredible in what it might tell us.” The Barnwell brothers and their collaborators at UEA and Norfolk Museums Service have recovered an array of artefacts from the wreckage, including clothing, shoes, wine bottles (some unopened), navigational tools, ceramic vessels, naval equipment and personal possessions. As of now, the team doesn’t plan to raise the ship’s remains from the seabed, but a selection of artefacts and informational displays will go on view at the Norwich Castle Museum next year. Built in 1652, Gloucester was involved in naval campaigns during the Anglo-Spanish War and the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars. According to theGloucester Project portal, the ship was about to be sent on a naval mission but was reassigned at the request of England’s Protestant king, Charles II. Because Charles’ children were all illegitimate, his younger brother, the Catholic James, was his sole heir. In 1679, after rumours of a Catholic plot against the crown sparked unrest and a concerted effort to exclude James from the line of succession, the king sent James and his wife Mary to Scotland. By 1682, tensions had eased enough for Charles to allow James’ return to England; Gloucester was tasked with retrieving Mary, who was pregnant at the time, from Edinburgh ahead of her child’s birth. The mood on the ship and its squadron of accompanying vessels was festive, with James and such upper-class companions as diarist Samuel Pepys; John Churchill, the future Duke of Marlborough; and a host of Scottish nobles enjoying wine, gourmet cuisine and live music. “TheGloucester was party central,” Sean Kingsley, a marine historian and the founder of Wreckwatchmagazine, jokingly tells National Geographic. “The duke and his cronies were having a fine old time.” Soon, however, an argument broke out among the ship’s crew, with pilot James Ayres calling for theGloucester to stay close to the coast and shipmaster Benjamin Holmes advocating for the deep-sea route. James, as a former Lord High Admiral, settled the matter by picking a middle course. “He’s clearly a man that believes in his own importance, his own beliefs and the rightness of what he’s saying,” says Jowitt in a separate UEA statement. “He thinks he knows best. But, importantly, when it goes wrong, it’s never his fault.” TheGloucester struck parallel sandbanks at approximately 5:30 a.m. and sank within an hour. Between 130 and 250 of the 330 passengers and crew died. In the aftermath, James refused to accept any responsibility, instead blaming Ayres and calling for his immediate hanging. Though Ayres was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, he was released after serving just a year, The Wreck of HMS Gloucester off Yarmouth, 6 May 1682 This painting represents the wrecking of the 'Gloucester' while carrying the Duke of York to Leith. Through the negligence of the pilot, the ship foundered on the Lemon and Oar shoal off Yarmouth. The Duke escaped with several other notables, including John Churchill, afterwards Duke of Marlborough, but about 130 people perished in the incident. The artist was a Dutch-born painter Johan Danckerts who came to England to work. Here, he was joined by his brother, Hendrick, who became court painter to Charles II. The Wreck of the Gloucester off Yarmouth, 6 May 1682 ▻
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