Wreck of HMS Victory found in English Channel

“This is the naval equivalent of the Titanic,perhaps even more important than the Titanic,” said marine archaeologist Sean Kingsley,director of Wreck Watch International. “It’s the only intact collection of bronze guns from a Royal Navy warship in the world.” The ship,he added,“was the equivalent in its day of an aircraft carrier armed with nuclear weapons. When it disappeared off the face of the Earth,there was a collective gasp in the establishment and the general public.”

Kingsley and Stemm both noted that the team had so far seen no sign of cargo on the Victory. The Victory site was discovered in May during Odyssey’s extensive surveying of the English Channel area with ships carrying sensitive magnetometers and other instruments. The location has been kept secret ever since.

Researchers used Odyssey’s eight-ton remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Zeus to explore and photograph the site. The ROV “almost immediately landed on a bronze cannon,which are extremely rare”,Kingsley said. The cannons “were littered across the seabed,so you knew you had something incredible”. The ROV also found a copper caldron used for cooking,iron ballast that was placed in the keel for maneuverability.