He wrote a harrowing account of victims and survivors being picked up ‘half dead’ from the water. The disaster was witnessed by diarist Samuel Pepys, who was on another vessel in the fleet.
James went on to reign as King James II of England and Ireland and James VII of Scotland from 1685 until 1688, when he was deposed by the Glorious Revolution.ĭiarist and naval administrator Samuel Pepys, who witnessed events from another ship in the fleet, wrote his own account - describing the harrowing experience for victims and survivors, with some picked up ‘half dead’ from the water.Īs well as James, HMS Gloucester carried a number of prominent English and Scottish courtiers including John Churchill, later the 1st Duke of Marlborough. Mr Ayres was instead court-martialled and imprisoned. James took no responsibility for the disaster, instead blaming the pilot who he demanded be hanged immediately. James barely survived, and delayed abandoning ship until the last minute - possibly resulting in the deaths of sailors who were forbidden to leave the ship before the ‘persons of quality’ as royalty were known. Some accounts claim the vessel sank as a result over a dispute between James, a former Lord High Admiral, and the ship’s pilot James Ayres about the best route through the treacherous Norfolk sandbanks. The vessel’s sinking is a matter of great historical debate. James barely survived, having delayed abandoning ship until the last minute, needlessly costing the lives of between 130 and 250 people on board who, because of protocol, could not abandon the ship before royalty. James Stuart, later James II of England, who would be Britain's last Catholic king, survived the sinking but up to around 250 sailors and passengers lost their lives, largely due to his actions. HMS Gloucester represents an 'almost' moment in British political history, as it nearly caused the death of the Catholic heir to the Protestant throne at a time of great political and religious tension. The ship itself is fragmented and still on the seafloor, and authorities say there are currently no plans to bring any part of the remains to land. The exhibition – jointly curated by the University of East Anglia and Norfolk Museums Service – will be staged for five months at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery from spring next year. Plans are underway to exhibit artefacts on board the ship that have been brought to land, including clothes, wine bottles and the ship's bell, used to conclusively confirm the wreck was the Gloucester. The 'outstanding' 54-gun frigate, which sank on after hitting the Norfolk sandbanks in the southern North Sea, was uncovered 28 miles off the coast of Great Yarmouth half-buried on the seabed - but the find was kept secret until now to conserve the ship.Įfforts to locate the wreck, led by brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell, proved successful after a four-year search covering 5,000 nautical miles.
The discovery of HMS Gloucester off the Norfolk coast has been hailed as the biggest maritime find since the discovery of the Mary Rose in the 1970s. The wreck of a Royal warship that sank 340 years ago carrying the future King James II has been discovered by amateur divers.
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