By: Cathy Cai

Almost 300 years ago, the famous HMS Gloucester ship sunk. In 2007, the brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell and a small team discovered it. Aboard the Glouscester ship was the Duke of York, who is better known in history for eventually becoming King James the II. If it wasn’t for the Duke then then ship wouldn’t have sunk. The shipwreck happened when the Duke and the pilot were arguing about which course to take. The Duke forced the pilot to take the path he didn’t want to take. The ship hit some sandbanks and that is was when the ship started to sink. About an hour later about 200 people died. The Duke is also blamed for these deaths because no one could leave the ship until he did and he didn’t leave until the very last minute. After the ship sunk, the Duke blamed the pilot and ordered for him to be executed. Instead, the pilot was put in prison. When the HMS Gloucester sank it sank quickly so nothing was saved from the wreckage which means the items left on the ship can tell us more about the 17th century. Some of the items found on the ship will be on display in Norwich Castle Museum in 2023.