OLD BATTLESHIP EXHUMED

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 8, 4 January 1913, Page 5

OLD BATTLESHIP EXHUMED

With reference to the recent discored y of an ancient ship embedded in the Thames mud at Woolwich, Mr. W. T. Vincent, president of the Woolwich Antiquarian Society, draws attention to the fact that it was in this neighbourhood that the Harry Grace a Dieu, the first great warship of the British Navy, built by Henry VIII., met her fate by fire, as a contemporary record has it, “by carelessness of the mariners,” in 1553. This vessel was built at the Royal Dockyard at Woolwich in 1512, and it was alxmrd her that Henry crossed to the Field of the Cloth of Gold. From the size and construction of the ship*now being unearthbd it appears clear that she was a large man of-war, and the position in which she lies leads to the conclusion that she must have been run ashore in an ancient dock or creek, as she lies on ait even keel just on a level with lowwater mark, 20 feet below the surface of the wharf in which excavations were being made when the vessel was discovered. A careful ’survey of the remains is being made by the London County Council.