The Northumberland wreck

05/08/2025

The YouTube version of the History Hit Doco has just been released. Well worth a watch https://youtu.be/UsWFfv6-jiM?si=6a7uyuzw5fAttMo_ with Protected Wreck Association MSDS Marine and MSDS Heritage Historic England

Breaking News: History Hit's Dan Snow has been given exclusive access to the incredibly well-preserved remains of the 18th-century warship Northumberland.Com...

02/08/2025

Latest Documentary just released on the History Hit Channel. A version will come out on YouTube soon.

05/01/2025

Shortly before the Northumberland was lost on the Goodwin Sands the Navy captured a 50-gun warship in the western approaches. That ship was the Hazardeux and which was subsequently recommissioned as the 4th rate Hazardous Prize. Here is a short video highlighting the 2024 excavations of the gundeck. If we ever get to excavate the gundeck of the Northumberland it will make a really interesting comparison and identify differences between French and English construction. https://youtu.be/1nLAoHxqH4o?si=FoGlIQvY6wnbEFTF

Highlights from the 2024 excavation of the main gundeck.

09/08/2024

Check out the video diary from this July. We had pretty good viz for the Goodwins and saw some very encouraging archaeology, confirming we have well preserved structures and artefacts contained within the wreck mound. With Protected Wreck Association Historic England Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust MSDS Marine and MSDS Heritage

Video diary discussing the wreck and features emerging from the site.

20/12/2023

Check out this fantastic film about the protected wrecks in the Uk.

In early 2023 commissioned MSDS Marine and Michael Pitts to produce a film to celebrate fifty years of Protected Wreck sites and the role v...

30/06/2023

On Wednesday evening we were in Deal with Alison James and the Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust trying to raise awareness and support for the Northumberland. Listen to us BBC Radio Kent speaking about the urgent need to excavate the site and what an excavation project could do for the region of East Kent

Radio interview about the wreck of the Northumberland on the Goodwin Sands, lost during the great storm of 1703.

05/04/2023

In 2018 we found an area with lots of exposed lignum vitae pulley sheaves. Lignum vitae is an extremely hard and durable timber from the tropics. Even marine boring organism find it impenetrable.
This is a potential indicator of a location near the block room, where spare rigging was kept. With Historic England Bournemouth University Maritime Archaeology MSDS Marine and MSDS Heritage Protected Wreck Association Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust

31/03/2023

As well as intact chests, cannon with their carriages is another excellent indicator that there is a well-preserved shipwreck, just beneath the top layers of sand. Nearly two years has passed since this video was shot, imagine what else will have emerged in that time. With Bournemouth University Maritime Archaeology MSDS Marine and MSDS Heritage Protected Wreck Association Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust History Hit Historic England

30/03/2023

Here is the exact moment we came across a complete chest exposed on the site. It has a thin layer of concretion covering it, which has protected it and its contents for the last 320 years. This is a perfect example of a time capsule within a time capsule. Where there is one there are normally others close by. We can't wait to get back out to the site and see what else has become exposed. With Bournemouth University Maritime Archaeology MSDS Marine and MSDS Heritage Historic England Protected Wreck Association Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust History Hit

02/09/2022

The work on site has made the latest issue of Current Archaeology. It really gets across the huge potential of the site and that we are at a critical point where more needs to be done. Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust Mark Hobbs MSDS Marine and MSDS Heritage Rodrigo Ortiz Tom Cousins Tom Harrison Keith Clark Robert Peacock

When HMS Northumberland sank off the Kent coast in 1703, the wreck remained lost for almost three centuries – until erosion of the sandbank shielding its remains brought the ship to light once more. Daniel Pascoe told Carly Hilts how archaeologists are now racing against time and tide to record .....

16/08/2022

These figures show how time-lapse bathymetry has revealed the morphological changes to the site between 2017 and 2022. Multiple surveys have tracked the movement of local bedforms (sand waves), which have now migrated away from the site. The wreck mound is now isolated with an insufficient burial environment around it to protect the wreck. This means the sand on the wreck mound will rapidly reduce exposing more vulnerable archaeological material. MSDS Marine and MSDS Heritage Protected Wreck Association