'Blunder' lets looters pounce on HMS Victory...

'Blunder' lets looters pounce on HMS Victory

Jack Grimston Published: 3 June 2012

ANTIQUE cannons worth hundreds of thousands of pounds have been plundered from one of Britain’s most historic shipwrecks after a bungle by English Heritage betrayed its location, the company planning to raise the remains has claimed.

Odyssey Marine Exploration, the Florida firm that discovered the wreck of HMS Victory, predecessor to Admiral Nelson’s flagship, says at least two and possibly as many as six bronze guns have been illicitly removed from the site.

It blames English Heritage for publishing the approximate co-ordinates of the wreck, enabling looters to target it.

In a study published today Odyssey argues that the Victory, which may contain gold worth hundreds of millions of pounds as well as more than 100 bronze cannons, has been severely damaged by fishing boats as well as unauthorised salvage operations and must be recovered urgently. Odyssey located the Victory, which sank in 1744 in a storm, four years ago. It lies in 240ft of water west of the Channel Islands.

The Odyssey report was co-written by Sean Kingsley, a marine archeologist and director of the consultancy Wreck Watch. He says: “Through the publication of the general co-ordinates of the Victory’s location in a desk-based assessment commissioned by English Heritage on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, fishermen and illicit salvors have been able to pinpoint the site.”

English Heritage denied it had given away the location. “The co-ordinates [given] are the reported location of the wreck provided by Odyssey and were in the public domain at the time,” it said. “The report did not confirm or deny that information. The precise position of the wreck has never been published, and great care was given to keep that information in strictest confidence.”

Kingsley says an underwater survey of the wreck site by Odyssey has revealed severe damage caused by trawlers, which have dragged some of the cannons across the seabed and scraped away the surfaces of others. Timbers have also been destroyed.

One of the cannons was stolen by a Dutch salvage boat, which lowered a grabbing claw to the sea floor. Further damage was caused when French customs officers looking for drugs tore out an original wooden plug and powder charge.

The gun is now believed to be in the vaults of a Dutch museum, while the Ministry of Defence negotiates its return. Other cannons are rumoured to be in France.

This year the MoD handed over the Victory to the Maritime Heritage Foundation, set up by Lord Lingfield, a Conservative peer and relative of Sir John Balchin, the admiral who was among the 1,150 sailors drowned when the ship sank.

The archeologist Margaret Rule, who masterminded the raising of the Mary Rose in 1982, is patron of the foundation that has signed a contract with Odyssey to excavate the Victory. The operation is expected to cost about £20m.

Lingfield has been seeking approval from the government to begin work as quickly as possible, but work has been delayed by fierce criticism from the archeological world of the decision to hand over the Victory and let many of its treasures fall into the hands of a private company.

Lingfield said: “With the disappearance of the latest extremely valuable artefact, a rare 28-pounder bronze cannon, ministers are faced with an urgent decision.

“Those who believe this highly important wreck, if it is left exactly as it is, will not be prey to unscrupulous people stealing valuable artefacts are entirely deluded.”

The Maritime Heritage Foundation hopes to hold an exhibition of the items recovered at Chatham royal dockyard in Kent.

They are likely to include a golden compass bought by the admiralty for the ship and a rare quadrant used by a scientist on board. It is expected that any human remains found in the wreck will be interred in a concrete vault beneath the sea bed.

However, Lord Renfrew, former professor of archeology at Cambridge University, said this weekend: “The government should not be handing over wrecks to newly established heritage organisations that have no track record. I think the government is acting in a very careless way.”

He added: “To sell off artefacts would be outrageous. The government and the navy seem to be sleepwalking. When objects from HMS Victory appear on the open market, all hell should be let loose.”

English Heritage opposes selling off artefacts. Odyssey argues that it will carry out a professional excavation at no cost to the taxpayer and that it is better to sell off some guns, many of which are duplicates, than to leave the whole wreck on the sea bed indefinitely, where it will be vulnerable to further damage. The company will also claim the coins and precious metals it believes are buried beneath the sea bed.

Greg Stemm, founder and chairman of Odyssey, said: “If the site is left as it is, these items and the stories they can tell will be lost for ever.

“There are tens of thousands of important shipwrecks around the UK that are being trawled to death and lost to nature. On this shipwreck, a model has been proposed that will see great archeological resources utilised to bring it back to life at no cost to taxpayers. Shouldn’t we allow that model to play out and see how it works?”

An MoD spokesman said no decision had been taken on whether to go ahead with the excavation.

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