The HMS London of 1654 has been found at the bottom of the Thames Estuary, still in amazingly good condition. The ship’s magazine exploded by accident in 1665, sinking her. Modern navigation channels have been rerouted around the wreck to preserve the remains.
Several other vessels have also been found, including a Tudor brick barge, a couple of steamers sunk during WWII, and a steel hull sailing ship that went down in 1914.
Both the London and her sistership, the Dunbar were built at the same time, but in different yards. The Dunbar built at Deptford, while the London was constructed at Chatham, as 1100 ton second rates.
The London’s career came to a sudden and unexpected end on March 8, 1665 at the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The London had been selected as the flagship of Sir John Lawson, Vice-Admiral of the Red Squadron. The warship was sailing up the Thames River between the Nore and the Hope, where she was to meet the Vice-Admiral. Some of her 80 brass guns were ready to fire a noisy salute at the embarcation of the Vice-Admiral, when an unknown seaman made a horrible mistake in the magazine. A thunderous and powerful explosion literally blew out the ship’s bottom, sending the stricken vessel to her doom in an instant. Some 300 souls were either drowned or killed in the explosion. Twenty-five badly shaken survivors, including a woman, were resued from the poop, which remained above water.
Information Sourcer: Great Ships, The Battlefleet of King Charles ll, by Frank Fox, P. 71
Happy modeling to all and everyone. Crackers, Jerome, Idaho