CGI reconstruction of the ‘London’ wreck
© Touch Productions
In 1665, HMS London, a 64-gun second-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, exploded in the Thames Estuary off Southend. Recent dives on the wreck have recovered a wide range of artifacts and remains. As reported by the BBC: A project spokesman said: “The artefacts we can recover may be similar in scope to those… from the Mary Rose, but 120 years later in date.” The Mary Rose saw 34 years of service before it sank while leading an attack on a French invasion fleet in 1545. Around 19,000 artefacts were found on board after it was raised from the seabed of the Solent in 1982.
According to Samuel Pepys, 300 of the London’s crew were killed while 24 were blown clear and survived, including one woman. In 2005, during preparatory work for the London Gateway Port development in Thurrock, Essex, the London was rediscovered. The wreck was placed on English Heritage’s ‘Heritage at Risk’ Register in 2005, due to the ship being exposed by shifting sediment levels on the sea bed.
The Guardian reports: Cotswold Archaeology and local divers hope to recover as much information as possible before the ship’s splinted timbers finally disintegrate. Much of the wreck has been preserved within a deep layer of silt and mud in the on the bed of the Thames Estuary. But the wreck has been on the national inventory of heritage at risk since it was realised that timbers were being scoured bare and quickly destroyed by changing tidal patterns, including the dredging for the huge London Gateway port development.
In 1665 the explosion was a humiliating disaster. The London was blown in half, and sank almost instantly. A surprising number of the human remains recovered so far have proved to be female, suggesting that as well as the 350 crew, plus extra gunners for the newly mounted artillery, the ship was carrying many of their wives and sweethearts.
“It’s a good question why there were so many women, and one on which I wouldn’t care to speculate,” archaeologist and diver Dan Pascoe said.
The London may be the best known ship that exploded in the Thames estuary near Southend, but not far away is a ship that is well know for not exploding, at least not yet. The Liberty ship SS Richard Montgomery, with a cargo of high explosives, was wrecked off the Nore in the Thames Estuary in 1944. Shortly after the wreck, an attempt was made to remove her cargo but the ship broke apart with 1,400 tonnes of high explosives still aboard.
The latest annual study from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency suggests the hull of the wreck is still deteriorating, and the risk of an explosion, while remote, cannot be ruled out.
Thanks to Alaric Bond and Irwin Bryan for contributing to this post.