There are currently 57 nationally important shipwrecks in English waters, spanning the Bronze Age to the 20th century, designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 – including the remains of HMS Invincible (pictured here), a 74-gun warship that was…
On 11 October 1982, an estimated global audience of 60 million people tuned in to watch one of the televisual events of the decade: the long-awaited raising of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII's ill-fated Tudor flagship, from the seabed near Portsmouth, where it had rested since capsizing while fighting against the French at the Battle of the Solent some 437 years previously.
In its heyday, HMS Invincible was considered one of the finest ships in the Royal Navy – and although it sank off Portsmouth in 1758, its remains represent the best-preserved 18th-century warship known in UK waters. Carly Hilts spoke to Daniel Pascoe, who headed recent excavations of the wreck, and visited an exhibition currently running at The Historic Dockyard Chatham to find out more.
The remains of the ship were discovered in 1979 by local fishermen and she was designated a Historic Wreck in 1980.
In 1982, Britain went to war in the Falklands, relying for the last time on an aircraft that was entirely made within the country: the Harrier Jump Jet. Not only this, but the head of the department that produced the…