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An exciting and transformative model for understanding British history and heritage. Brings together maritime archaeology, historical research, heritage practice, and public interpretation through a single extraordinary case study: a seventeenth-century royal shipwreck.
The Gloucester shipwreck is one of the most remarkable surviving witnesses to seventeenth-century Britain. The ship was launched in 1654 during Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate, rebuilt during the Restoration, and wrecked off the Norfolk coast in 1682 while carrying James Stuart, duke of York and Albany, the future James II and VII and his court. It was a warship at the heart of an age shaped by naval warfare, dynastic politics, religious conflict, imperial expansion, and cultural transformation. Rediscovered in 2007, the wreck and its exceptionally preserved artefacts have been hailed as the most significant maritime archaeological discovery since the Mary Rose, offering an unparalleled opportunity to reconsider the interconnected worlds of early modern Britain through the life and afterlife of a single vessel.
This richly illustrated volume follows the Gloucester across more than 350 years of history. Essays explore ship design and naval administration, the Anglo-Dutch Wars, the Stuart monarchy, the Exclusion Crisis and wider political contexts, court culture, fashion, art, music, drinking practices, shipwrecked material culture, maritime archaeology, and heritage management.
Just as importantly, the book traces the ship's extraordinary second life: from its discovery and conservation to its media unveiling, museum interpretation, and the landmark exhibition The Last Voyage of the Gloucester: Norfolk's Royal Shipwreck, 1682. By bringing together historical, archaeological, creative, and heritage perspectives, the collection demonstrates how the Gloucester is reshaping understanding of Britain's maritime past while helping to imagine new futures for naval heritage, public history, and cultural tourism.
The Gloucester shipwreck is one of the most remarkable surviving witnesses to seventeenth-century Britain. The ship was launched in 1654 during Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate, rebuilt during the Restoration, and wrecked off the Norfolk coast in 1682 while carrying James Stuart, duke of York and Albany, the future James II and VII and his court. It was a warship at the heart of an age shaped by naval warfare, dynastic politics, religious conflict, imperial expansion, and cultural transformation. Rediscovered in 2007, the wreck and its exceptionally preserved artefacts have been hailed as the most significant maritime archaeological discovery since the Mary Rose, offering an unparalleled opportunity to reconsider the interconnected worlds of early modern Britain through the life and afterlife of a single vessel.
This richly illustrated volume follows the Gloucester across more than 350 years of history. Essays explore ship design and naval administration, the Anglo-Dutch Wars, the Stuart monarchy, the Exclusion Crisis and wider political contexts, court culture, fashion, art, music, drinking practices, shipwrecked material culture, maritime archaeology, and heritage management.
Just as importantly, the book traces the ship's extraordinary second life: from its discovery and conservation to its media unveiling, museum interpretation, and the landmark exhibition The Last Voyage of the Gloucester: Norfolk's Royal Shipwreck, 1682. By bringing together historical, archaeological, creative, and heritage perspectives, the collection demonstrates how the Gloucester is reshaping understanding of Britain's maritime past while helping to imagine new futures for naval heritage, public history, and cultural tourism.
Price: $190.00
Pages: 496
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: Boydell Press
Publication Date:
March 30, 2027
Trim Size: 9.21 X 6.14 in
ISBN: 9781837652464
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Stuart Era (1603-1714), HISTORY / Maritime History & Piracy, HISTORY / Social History, ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES / Subjects & Themes / Royalty, HISTORY / Military / Early Modern Warfare (1500-1800), Maritime history, Ships and boats: general interest, Underwater archaeology, Social and cultural history, Religion and politics
Introduction: Gloucester Redux? A Ship in-and-out of Time
Claire Jowitt and Benjamin W. D. Redding
Section One: Maritime Archaeology and the Future of the Gloucester
Chapter 1: Finding, Surveying, and Managing a Historic Wreck Site: The Second Life of the Gloucester Warship
Julian Barnwell, Lincoln Barnwell, and James 'Tiny' Little
Chapter 2: The Gloucester Wreck Site: Scope, Condition, and Site Management
Garry Momber with Carley Divish and Brandon Mason
Chapter 3: The Vasa (1628) and the Gloucester (1654-82): A Maritime Museum Parable
Fred Hocker
Chapter 4: The Dartmouth (1655-90) and the Gloucester (1654-82): A Comparative History and Assemblage
Ella Paul
Section Two: The Political Worlds of a Late Seventeenth-Century Warship
Chapter 5: A New Ship? The Gloucester's Refit 1678-80
Benjamin W. D. Redding
Chapter 6: Samuel Pepys and the Naval Reform of the Later Stuart Navy, 1677-90
J. D. Davies
Chapter 7: Corruption and Naval Politics during the Succession Crisis and Beyond: The Gloucester in Context
Mark Knights
Chapter 8: Seapower Sovereign: The Leadership of James II and VII as Lord High Admiral and Monarch
Andrew Lambert
Chapter 9: The Spectre of the Sun King: Anti-French Sentiment, Universal Monarchy, and James Stuart
Lewis Wade
Chapter 10: The Loyalty of Survivors: Ultra-Royalism in Scotland, the Jacobite Cause, and the Gloucester Wreck
Karin Bowie
Chapter 11: Visions of Empire: Tangier, the Gloucester, and Restoration Partisan Politics
Steve Pincus
Section Three: Material, Cultural, and Political Contexts of a Restoration Shipwreck
Chapter 12: Ships of State: James, Duke of York and Albany and the Van Herring
Bernard Capp
Chapter 13: Medicine, Mutts, and 'Dunghill confederates': Whig History and the Politicisation of the Royal Physician on the Gloucester's Last Voyage
Claire Jowitt
Chapter 14: 'These were at sea': Restoration Court Musicians and the Gloucester
Rebecca Herissone
Chapter 15: Drunker Sailors, Intoxicants, and the Sinking of the Gloucester
Angela McShane
Chapter 16: Fatal Voyages: Sea and Shipwreck in Art before 1700
Remmelt Daalder
Chapter 17: The Restoration Court on the Move: Fashion, Style, and Luggage on the Gloucester
Maria Hayward
Chapter 18: Textiles from the Gloucester Wreck: Replicating the Silk Hood and Whisk
Ninya Mikhaila
Section Four: The Gloucester in the Modern World: Creativity and Heritage
Chapter 19: 'Norfolk's Mary Rose': Announcing a Major Maritime Discovery to the World
Cat Bartman and Laura Potts
Chapter 20: A Shipwreck in Norwich Castle Museum: Designing the Exhibition 'The Last Voyage of the Gloucester: Norfolk's Royal Shipwreck, 1682'
Holly Coles and Darren Stevens
Chapter 21: Designing a Dive Trial for the Gloucester Wreck Site
Jasmine Noble-Shelley
Chapter 22: What Happened on the Gloucester? A Playwright Navigates the Sandbanks of Fact
Steve Waters
Chapter 23: Filming the Gloucester Project
Cameron Black and Charlie Gauvain
Claire Jowitt and Benjamin W. D. Redding
Section One: Maritime Archaeology and the Future of the Gloucester
Chapter 1: Finding, Surveying, and Managing a Historic Wreck Site: The Second Life of the Gloucester Warship
Julian Barnwell, Lincoln Barnwell, and James 'Tiny' Little
Chapter 2: The Gloucester Wreck Site: Scope, Condition, and Site Management
Garry Momber with Carley Divish and Brandon Mason
Chapter 3: The Vasa (1628) and the Gloucester (1654-82): A Maritime Museum Parable
Fred Hocker
Chapter 4: The Dartmouth (1655-90) and the Gloucester (1654-82): A Comparative History and Assemblage
Ella Paul
Section Two: The Political Worlds of a Late Seventeenth-Century Warship
Chapter 5: A New Ship? The Gloucester's Refit 1678-80
Benjamin W. D. Redding
Chapter 6: Samuel Pepys and the Naval Reform of the Later Stuart Navy, 1677-90
J. D. Davies
Chapter 7: Corruption and Naval Politics during the Succession Crisis and Beyond: The Gloucester in Context
Mark Knights
Chapter 8: Seapower Sovereign: The Leadership of James II and VII as Lord High Admiral and Monarch
Andrew Lambert
Chapter 9: The Spectre of the Sun King: Anti-French Sentiment, Universal Monarchy, and James Stuart
Lewis Wade
Chapter 10: The Loyalty of Survivors: Ultra-Royalism in Scotland, the Jacobite Cause, and the Gloucester Wreck
Karin Bowie
Chapter 11: Visions of Empire: Tangier, the Gloucester, and Restoration Partisan Politics
Steve Pincus
Section Three: Material, Cultural, and Political Contexts of a Restoration Shipwreck
Chapter 12: Ships of State: James, Duke of York and Albany and the Van Herring
Bernard Capp
Chapter 13: Medicine, Mutts, and 'Dunghill confederates': Whig History and the Politicisation of the Royal Physician on the Gloucester's Last Voyage
Claire Jowitt
Chapter 14: 'These were at sea': Restoration Court Musicians and the Gloucester
Rebecca Herissone
Chapter 15: Drunker Sailors, Intoxicants, and the Sinking of the Gloucester
Angela McShane
Chapter 16: Fatal Voyages: Sea and Shipwreck in Art before 1700
Remmelt Daalder
Chapter 17: The Restoration Court on the Move: Fashion, Style, and Luggage on the Gloucester
Maria Hayward
Chapter 18: Textiles from the Gloucester Wreck: Replicating the Silk Hood and Whisk
Ninya Mikhaila
Section Four: The Gloucester in the Modern World: Creativity and Heritage
Chapter 19: 'Norfolk's Mary Rose': Announcing a Major Maritime Discovery to the World
Cat Bartman and Laura Potts
Chapter 20: A Shipwreck in Norwich Castle Museum: Designing the Exhibition 'The Last Voyage of the Gloucester: Norfolk's Royal Shipwreck, 1682'
Holly Coles and Darren Stevens
Chapter 21: Designing a Dive Trial for the Gloucester Wreck Site
Jasmine Noble-Shelley
Chapter 22: What Happened on the Gloucester? A Playwright Navigates the Sandbanks of Fact
Steve Waters
Chapter 23: Filming the Gloucester Project
Cameron Black and Charlie Gauvain