Archaeologists face “a race against time” to explore the wreck of British warships that had been sank into a huge storm more than 300 years ago.
Northumberland is a 70-gun warship built in Bristol, England in 1679, and is now most famous in its diary as part of the transformation of the Royal Navy under Samuel Peppies – from corrupt facilities to combat forces.
The ship was destroyed along with three other warships, Repair, Sterling Castle and Mary, in a sandbar off Kent in southeastern England during the devastating storm of November 26, 1703. Historical explanations suggest that about 250 crew members died in Northumberland.
The ship’s ruins were discovered in 1979 when a fisherman’s net caught.
Experts say the wreck, which covers a wide area of the seabed at a depth of 50-65 feet (15-20 meters), is extremely well preserved by sand and seabed sediments that have been covered for hundreds of years.
Northumberland has always been partially covered with sand and sediment since it was first discovered, making it difficult to explore. However, last summer, about two-thirds of the ship were exposed, allowing maritime archaeologists to conduct deep sea explorations.
A detailed investigation revealed, among other things, a wide range of hull structures, multiple iron cannons, swords, muskets, copper cauldrons, and sealed breasts, where their contents remain unknown, historic England said in a press release.
The heritage body says it is now a “race against time” to record details of Northumberland before Shift Sand is buried again. Shipwrecks also say they are threatened by strong currents and wood creatures. This means it can become unstable and deteriorate quickly.
Heffin Mear, a historic English maritime archaeologist who commissioned the investigation, told CNN why the shipwreck location played such a major role in both its discovery and its current danger.
“The Goodwin Sons, where this wreck is located, is really, really dynamic,” he said. “You move these huge sand dunes around such areas, so for a while the wreck is completely exposed, then the sand gets over it and buries it into five or six meters of sand, which will completely disappear for more than a decade.”
This is what was thought to have happened when the ship originally said that Meara was about 150 feet (46 meters) long, and that it was recently.
“It’s a major major warship,” he said. “There is an exposed area somewhere in the area about 98 feet long, so the entire wreck is not yet exposed. We have passed this exposure and arrogant period over the past 300 years, so we’ve seen shipwrecks spread across quite large areas.
The team is planning more geophysical investigations as the sand tries to find ways to make the most of this window before it recovers Northumberland, or it starts to deteriorate due to exposure to oxygen and other environmental factors, Meara said.
“These shipwrecks are a very incredible resource as they go down and the losses happen in one event,” he said. “This is a snapshot of life on board the warships, and everything is stored there, so there’s a great opportunity to learn what’s going on during this incredibly exciting expansion in the Navy.”
Shipwreck is the subject of a new documentary created by historian Dan Snow to strike the history of streaming services. In a historic England press release, Snow compared the wreck of Mary Rose, a warship commissioned under the famous Henry VIII in 1545, to the victory of the world’s oldest surviving mandated warship, HMS.
“Nortumberland is a missing link,” Snow said. “Built almost in the middle of the victory of Mary Rose and HMS, this shipwreck can fill in the important details of shipbuilding and sea life at a pivotal moment in our history.
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