Up next in 10
HMS Victory (1737) - Royal Navy ship lost for 300 years
245 views
Apr 22, 2025
HMS Victory was the flagship of the Royal Navy and her disappearance in 1744 along with 1,150 crew caused national mourning. Believed to be near Alderney, ship wreck detectives spent decades looking for her but it wasn't until 2009 that she was found lying in 78 metres of water. This video shows large numbers of massive bronze cannon, timbers that have survived over 300 years underwater and even, very sadly, some human remains. In a world first, it reveals that many of the cannon seem to have been moved off the wreck site by human intervention. *Highlights* 00:00 Introduction 01:54 My camera setup 03:00 Arriving at wreck 04:15 Double bronze cannon 08:40 Massive cooking pot 10:50 Does the Royal Navy care? 13:24 The War of Jenkin's Ear 14:50 Human remains (skull and leg bone) 17:19 Award winning photo 19:00 A real mystery - moving guns? 23:35 A long way from the wreck 25:35 Back on the shot 30:40 Dive complete
View Video Transcript
0:01
1,150 Sailors died the night that HMS Victory vanished in
0:08
1744 to this day it Remains the single biggest Royal Navy loss of life in the
0:14
English Channel the location of the wreck remained a mystery for nearly 300
0:20
years it was discovered in 2009 by Odyssey marine and I've had the great
0:26
privilege of diving it on two separate occasions during this video you'll see lots of these stunning bronze
0:33
cannons Timbers that formed part of the hull and even very sadly some human
0:40
remains you'll also be able to track my progress around the wreck Mound and in a
0:47
world first I'll reveal that many of the cannon seem to have been moved off the
0:52
Rec site by human intervention but come on I hear you say
0:58
everyone knows where hm Victory is it's one of the most famous ships in the world it's in Portsmouth military
1:05
dockyard it was Nelson's Flagship at the Battle of Trafalga and has been in
1:10
continuous military service ever since preserved for the nation and of course you're absolutely
1:18
right but we're talking about two different ships the Navy likeed to reuse
1:25
names so when HMS victory was lost in 1744 they built another one and that HMS
1:32
Victory became the one used by Nelson at Trafalga and that is still afloat in
1:38
Portsmouth dockyard so this is me on The Descent we're about 45 miles Southwest
1:46
of Plymouth in the middle of the English Channel as you can see it's pretty dark
1:54
I normally have my video camera mounted to my helmet but this dive it's
1:59
different it's actually on the front of my scooter with two video lights and the reason
2:05
I've done this is cu I want to get the best possible footage of what we find at the
2:10
bottom you can see we're getting close not only are there two strobes flashing
2:16
away in front of me but I've also had occasional glimpses of torches from divers who were already on the
2:23
wreck those of you who've seen my other videos will know that what's going to happen next is I'm going to attach my
2:30
strobes onto the shotline because this means I I'll have to let go of the scooter that means the
2:36
scooter is just going to dangle around in midwater filming not very much so it
2:42
isn't going to be the greatest bit of video footage I just ask you to hang in there it won't take me too long to get
2:49
those strobes fixed I'll then pick up the scooter again and we'll start onto
2:54
the wreck
3:00
there we go my strobe is fixed and I'm on my way I promised that you'd be able
3:05
to track my progress around the wreck Mound and that's what I'm going to use the multibeam image in the top right
3:11
hand corner to do the green area is the seabed and then the yellow and red are
3:18
areas that stand up above the seabed the dots show my snail Trail around the Rec
3:25
site and the star is where the shot is located that's where I currently
3:31
am like any wreck dive it takes you a while to get your bearings and that's
3:36
what's currently happening the mound is off to my right hand side the flat seabed to my left I'm just scootering
3:44
around mainly cuz I've seen the other diver and I'm heading towards them to see if they found anything
3:50
interesting as I get closer it's clear that they haven't so I'm going to turn
3:55
around to the right and move up onto the wreck Mound both times I've dived HMS Victory
4:03
conditions on the bottom have been awesome there's less ambient light on this dive but frankly it's still pretty
4:09
good the visibility is easily 5 M plus
4:14
as I come up on the W Mound the first thing I see is these two Cannon they're
4:20
absolutely incredible 3 and 1/2 M long these are some of the main Armament that
4:26
HMS Victory carried I remember them very well from on the first dive not least
4:31
because of the fact that they're completely parallel to each other which isn't something you'd expect to happen
4:37
during a normal sinking event for a ship you can also clearly see that they've
4:43
got some sort of lifting strops around them these guns have clearly been moved here and placed in the position that we
4:50
can currently see them the big question of course is who did it and how did they
4:55
do it and I don't think we'll ever know the answer to that question although there's plenty of people
5:01
willing to speculate about all we can say is it
5:06
must have required a pretty impressive piece of technology and probably happened a while ago because the lifting
5:12
strops have rotted away and in many cases they've actually come off the guns
5:18
and are to the side of them as you can see on that left hand gun so where are
5:23
we on the Rec site these pair of guns are to the western side of the main
5:28
Mound as you can see on my diagram I'm now going to move up onto the mound
5:35
itself this is all bits of wreckage it might not look like it but you can see
5:41
Timbers and you can see ballast that has been filled in with sand none of this is
5:47
natural rock one of the great things about diving HMS victory is how much
5:52
life there is on it we've already seen crayfish and lobsters you can see a hermit crab we've just gone past and all
5:59
the tiny fish that this is some sort of breeding ground for but then in front of
6:04
us here that's a cannon sticking in a rather juny angle out of the seabed you
6:11
can also see that concretion has come off it and you ask yourself what causes that concretion to be removed anybody
6:19
who's tried to get it off will know that it's a very difficult thing to achieve almost certainly I would say that
6:25
concretion is been removed by something rubbing on it such as fishing gear or
6:32
you know ropes of some variety there's another Cannon off to the right hand side and once again you can see a big
6:39
edible crab there loads and loads of life and I think this site is quite
6:44
heavily fished and quite heavily trolled and also gets potted as well purely
6:51
because of all the marine life look in here you can see some sort of uh piece of the ship in front of me there and you
6:58
probably also saw the bottom there that bottle isn't original it's a piece of rubbish that somehow ended up on the Rec
7:05
site you can see I've put my scooter down and the reason I've put it down is
7:10
that I'm pulling whatever that brass thing was out of the sand so we can have another good look at it doesn't really
7:17
help to identify what it is but I guess somebody who knew something about these kind of ships would be able to give us a
7:24
clue looking down there there's another Cannon nearly completely buried and I
7:29
think it just shows how much stuff there is in this wreck Mound there's some
7:37
Timbers a load more Timbers and it seems to me that these probably get covered and uncovered as sand moves around
7:44
otherwise I just don't see how they could have survived being underwater for this long as I move up here there's
7:51
another Cannon I did promise you lots and lots of cannons on this site there's a little congal there just underneath it
7:59
once again again you can see the concretion has been removed from this and only on the top which to me is the
8:05
kind of place that you would imagine ropes running or catching now the interesting thing about
8:12
this cannon is I remember this cannon from the first dive and I've actually got photos of it with rope wrapped
8:19
around it the Rope is no longer here so I want again speculate that it's been
8:25
dragged off somehow and that is what may have removed the concretion
8:30
I'm still moving around the top of the mound I think we may have seen some of this wood
8:36
before and I have to say it's very difficult to orientate yourself on a wreck like this and that's why when you
8:42
see the uh the map of where I actually went on the wreck it does seem as though I went round in circles quite a lot and
8:49
that's almost certainly because probably I did what am I doing I guess I'm just
8:54
looking for anything interesting that I want to video but I do have a spe specific mission that I need to achieve
9:01
and one of the first part of it is finding this thing here this is a big probably cauldron I
9:10
guess the sort of thing maybe that they would have cooked food and meals in at
9:15
the moment it's merely a home to lots and lots of Conger now this wasn't in this position
9:23
when I did the last dive I estimate it's about 10 maybe 15 M away in a completely
9:30
different position and also in a completely different orientation once again I take the view
9:37
that this has been moved somehow whether it was by the current or whether it was by some sort of man-made activity I've
9:44
got no idea at all but there's another gun and once again loads of fish around
9:50
it I think those are probably pouting but that's not really my forte I load
9:56
more guns Just incredible how many of these things there are down
10:02
there HMS Victory when it sank was carrying approximately 100 guns of
10:08
different calibers these ones here are the uh are the largest of them I think
10:15
you can also see the beautiful brass lifting dolphins that are on the top of
10:20
them and those would be how the guns would have been moved backwards and forwards taken on or off the ship um and
10:27
moved around inside it you also probably got a glimpse of another diver everybody else is just
10:34
down here marveling at the incredible amount of stuff there is on a shipwreck
10:40
that is 300 years old one of the interesting things with HMS
10:46
victory is that this is a ship with 1150 dead Sailors on it you would
10:52
imagine that the Royal Navy would be interested in commemorating those
10:58
sailors and protecting the wreck in the same way that they do with other ships
11:03
where there's been large losses of life such as HMS Royal Oak in scappa flow yet
11:10
there's nothing to stop anybody from coming and Diving HMS Victory as we are
11:15
today there's no special prot protections applied to it or restrictions in any way in fact it's
11:23
almost as though the Royal Navy want to forget that the Shipwreck exists to make matters work
11:30
the Royal Navy no longer own it and that makes it almost unique amongst Naval
11:36
shipwrecks in 2012 the ministry of Defense transferred ownership of HMS Victory to the maritime
11:44
Heritage Foundation which as far as I can tell the only thing it does is to study HMS
11:52
Victory and it's not really clear to me whether any of that happens anymore you
11:57
can visit the website which doesn't look as though it's been updated for a very long time so it's a really bizarre
12:05
position for what should be a really important National wreck or at least I
12:11
feel it should be an important National wreck given how many people lost their
12:16
lives when it vanished during that storm in 1744 I look at the way the other
12:21
shipwrecks are commemorated and cherished things like the Mary Rose for
12:26
instance even HMS in the temps yet here an equally
12:33
important wreck arguably more important wreck is just completely ignored and is
12:38
at the mercy of whatever is happening in the middle of the English Channel anyway back to the diving you
12:46
can see I've been scootering around looking for other interesting objects
12:51
there's a kind of local cat shark SL Dogfish just back there and then there's
12:57
just there's this kind of stuff everywhere you kind of feel that e if you could just get below the sand
13:04
there'd be so many interesting things there and of course the famous thing that everyone's always suggested is that
13:11
HMS victory was carrying a large amount of gold it was the flagship of the fleet
13:17
and that should be somewhere unless of course someone's already had it who
13:22
knows one of the other interesting things about HMS victory is that it was sunk while it was returning in from the
13:30
epically named war of Jenkins ear which is also known as a Spanish war of
13:38
succession the thing that kicked it off was a was a pirate in uh the Caribbean
13:44
who was faced Justice from the Spanish and ended up having his ear cut off we
13:50
moved to protect someone that we saw as one of our captains um although obviously it was just a casis belly and
13:58
that's what kicked off the war the fleet was blockading ports in Spain when a
14:03
large Gale kicked up and HMS Victory along with the rest of the fleet was
14:09
making a run back to safety it never got there and nobody knew what happened to
14:15
it for the 300 years until it was found by Odyssey one of the interesting things is
14:21
that they thought that victory was wrecked off the Channel Islands and the Lighthouse Keeper in one of the Channel
14:28
Islands was actually court marshaled for failing to do his job of uh lighting the
14:34
lighthouse I think the good news is that we can now exonerate that individual and
14:40
say that he was not guilty mind you it's probably a bit late for him and I can't imagine that he
14:46
cares but at least justice has been done so this is where I am now and the
14:52
reason I'm here is because I'm looking for two particular guns that I know are
14:58
in this area and the reason I'm looking for them is because on the first dive I remember
15:05
that the I saw a skull here these are the two guns I remember them really well
15:11
they're so photogenic you can see the crest there on the top of one of them and the area where you'll see me shining
15:18
my torch just to the left hand side that's where I saw the skull and what I
15:23
think May well be a leg bone but as I look now I can see that they're not
15:30
there so the question is what's happened to them where have they
15:36
gone and unfortunately it's another one of those things that I don't have a good answer
15:42
to I'm continuing to move around the wreck and as you can see here more guns
15:49
there's a big one and two smaller ones the smaller one has become a nice little
15:54
home for a congal the bigger one once again cretion removed on the bottom of it there's also
16:01
a few lifting stops there in the middle of the picture were they associated with this gun who knows but it would seem odd
16:09
for them just to have ended up there by themselves there's another gun once again
16:14
buried and this one here the jauntily angled one we've seen
16:20
before up in front of me there I can see somebody with a couple of video
16:25
lights almost certainly that's Rick who who does Stills photos and some of his
16:32
Stills photos have been used during this uh this video I can actually see though
16:37
that he's put a video light on the ground which means that he's found a gun that he particularly likes and he's
16:44
taking some uh Arty images of it I like being photographed so I'm going to go up
16:50
there and I'm going to illuminate the wreck for him and try to get in some of his photos and as you'll see this works
16:57
out very well for me before I do that though quickly video whatever that thing is there maybe a millstone or a grinding
17:04
stone uh once again I'm not really an expert but that would seem like a
17:10
logical thing for a ship like HMS Victory to have on board up in front of me you can see that
17:15
video light has been resting on the seabed I'm going to go up there and I'm going to use my lights to illuminate the
17:22
cannon which will help Rick get a decent photo I'm also going to try and remain
17:28
completely static which once again will help him take a
17:38
photo I actually decide that I need to be a bit closer in so that I appear
17:43
better in the photo and you'll see I'm going to move forward shortly and get into position for his
17:50
photo sure it goes without saying that taking photographs at this kind of depth
17:56
is a really challenging thing to do and some of the photos that Rick produces are absolutely stunning anybody who
18:03
follows him on social media will know that it's also worth saying that if you ever dive with a photographer it's worth
18:10
thinking about the kind of challenges that they face so using your lights to illuminate suitable subjects and then
18:18
staying still to get them give them enough time to get into position those are things that they really value having
18:25
said that you don't want to Spain too long there you just going to uh waste your dive so I hope Rick's got the photo
18:32
and I'm going to move off as it happens it's an absolutely stunning photo that
18:38
has won awards in photographic competitions and I've got it a copy of it adorning the wall of my study I'd
18:47
just like to say thank you very much to Rick for giving me permission to use this stunning photo and also allowing me
18:53
to print a copy and stick it up on the wall of my study meanwhile back in the dive I'm on the move again I've still
19:01
got the other part of my mission to do we know from multibeam that there are
19:06
some objects to the west of the wreck and the reason that my location is being
19:11
tracked and the second part of my mission is to go and investigate what these objects are I'm going to start
19:18
with the double cannons that I saw at the beginning and then move out to the
19:24
west from there and that's what you'll see me do I'm going to drop onto the completely flat seabed I.E I'm not on
19:31
the mound anymore and I'm heading west using my compass it's completely flat
19:38
seabed as you can see this isn't part of the wreck this isn't part of the wreck
19:43
Mound so there's no reason why there should be any objects over here as I
19:50
head out you can see that I'm using my torch on my left hand to scan around and
19:57
try and spot these things that we've seen on the multibeam so far there's nothing and I'm
20:03
starting to get a bit concerned that I might be a bit far away from the mound after all I do need to get back to it
20:10
cuz that's where the shotline is and that's where my strobes are and that's my rot home and then you've probably
20:18
just seen it pop into view a cannon it's a long way from the mound and there's
20:24
actually another one there in the Gloom just further on from it
20:30
so these are the smaller Cannon though once again you'll see that they're
20:35
covered in lifting strops they'll also have the concretion removed and they're in completely the
20:42
wrong place there's no reason at all for them to be here as you'll see I'm going to
20:49
move along and they're literally in a line one after the other somebody and
20:57
something has moved removed these and put them here the reason I'm pausing at the moment is to show clearly the
21:04
lifting stops both the ones that are on the cannon and the remnants of other ones that are off to the side of it
21:11
here's another smaller Cannon once again lifting drop on there must have been
21:17
here a while for that thing to grow on it so there was three and I'm starting
21:23
to have a look around see if there's any more
21:29
not sure what that is maybe a bit of ballast or something from the wreck maybe that fell
21:35
off I'm looking around I kind of sense there must be more Cannon but I can't
21:41
see any at the moment I'm continuing to look around fish are always an interesting sign they
21:48
normally hang around wreckage maybe there's a few more fish that'll be where the Cannons are and there you go boom
21:56
Another Cannon once again where no Cannon should
22:06
be carrying on my search looking around for more in fact there's two Cannon there isn't there both of the smaller
22:13
sort one on the right one on the left definitely lifting stops on the
22:19
left one and maybe there remnants of a lifting strop on the right hand one just where that congal is oh in fact there's
22:26
loads of cannons here there's another one to the left another one in front and
22:32
another one in front of that once again all with lifting stops on I've lost
22:37
track of the number of cannons I found here that have been moved off the Rec site but it's a lot this has taken
22:44
somebody a serious amount of time and effort to do this I can't believe it's been done by
22:51
divers it simply wouldn't be possible so this has been done mechanically maybe with a remote operated vehicle that
22:58
would be my best guess once again looking in front here is there another
23:03
couple of cannons here yes there are once again the smaller ones covered
23:10
in lifting strops they've been moved here has to
23:16
be am I into double figures now I think I probably
23:22
am there's another one
23:32
there is lots and lots of cannons here all with lifting drops all not on the
23:38
Rec site so where am I on my chart well somewhere near where that star is as you
23:45
can see I'm a long way off the wreck mound in an area of flat seabed I came
23:51
out on the top one of those dotted lines I've jined around a bit and then I'm going to come back in on the bottom
23:57
dotted line which will take me back eventually to where the shot is in the meantime though there's
24:05
clearly some more cannons to be seen here you can go here you go you can see
24:10
these lifting stops concretion removed wrong place exactly what we've been
24:17
seeing all the way through this excursion off the mound these may be cannons that I've
24:22
seen before I'm not 100% certain all we can say is that as well
24:28
into double figures possibly you know getting as many as 20 that have been moved off the
24:35
Rec site why have they been moved off the Rec site well I don't know all I can
24:41
do is speculate that somebody was preparing them almost certainly to be lifted and recovered up to the surface
24:49
that's the only thing I can think of who was that well once again it's not possible to say
24:57
with any certainty see but I would imagine it's somebody with a financial interest in
25:03
getting them to the surface I've spotted something else
25:08
interesting here no idea what it is possibly iron maybe something to do with
25:14
a mast I have no idea and as you can see here I'm going
25:19
to start to come back up onto the mound starting to see sort of
25:25
the bottoms changing it's no no longer just Sandy we're starting to get all this ballast and other bits and pieces
25:33
nice little crayfish off to the right hand side and there's the shot you probably remember that from uh earlier
25:40
on in the video and we're back into the bigger
25:45
cannons which don't tend to have been moved off the Rec site loads of wood
25:50
other bits and pieces a diver in front of me there I think he's got a a lobster
25:56
or a crayfish in there I'm sure that'll make a nice dinner for him going back to
26:01
the war of Jenkins ear HMS victory at the time was commanded by Admiral Sir John balkin at
26:09
the time he died he was 74 years old and the third highest ranking officer in the
26:15
Royal Navy so I think it just emphasizes what an important ship HMS victory was at the
26:22
time and how keenly its loss must have been felt to the Royal Navy
26:28
it's also worth highlighting that at the time HMS victory was one of the most
26:34
technologically advanced ship in the world although there had been problems
26:39
bringing it into service where there had been an argument between the Navy and the master ship right who had
26:45
constructed her the Navy had felt it was insufficiently seaworthy and had sent it
26:51
back a number of times to have modifications ultimately though they accepted it into service and only only a
26:58
few years later it vanished during the storm of 1744 so perhaps they were right after
27:05
all as you can see there's all sorts of things on the seabed I've no idea what
27:11
that thing I've just been looking at at is was it something to do with the original wreck is it something else
27:17
that's found its way down there I have no idea here's another thing here frankly you'd love to be able to dig
27:24
this stuff up and just have a look at it to see another cat shark SL Dogfish
27:30
there depending on what you want to call it and here we are just more ballast
27:35
more wood I mean for me it's incredible in particular that the wood has managed to survive this long underwater the only
27:43
thing I can suggest is that it's continuously being covered and uncovered
27:48
by sand that as far as I can tell is the only way to preserve
27:53
it what I'm doing here is I'm I'm slightly off the recre site I'm just
27:59
traveling around looking to see if I can find other bits and pieces in front of me you can see
28:05
there's another diver with a torch no doubt trying to do the same thing as
28:10
me already mentioned how difficult it is to navigate around a wreck like HMS Victory there simply aren't the features
28:18
that you can use to identify where you are but there are on a normal wreck there's no nice straight lines for the
28:25
side there's no prominent engine or Bo Oilers there's no bow there's no anchors
28:31
there's none of that sort of stuff there's just guns and ballast and wood
28:36
and bits and pieces scattered all over the place trying to get it into your head on a relatively short dive is a
28:43
real Challenge and I have to say even though I've done two Dives on it I still
28:49
don't feel that I know the wreck particularly well I can't find my way easily from one object to the other I
28:56
just have to do what I'm doing here which is to uh scoot around and hopefully Hit Upon something that I
29:03
recognize there you go clearly not die very much grayfish is very relaxed fortunately I'm not hungry so I
29:11
leave it be I'm just cruising around there's another gun there you can see the Tran just on the side sticking out
29:18
of the sand I don't think I've seen this gun before more guns over here uh it's
29:24
just incredible I think I've mentioned already that there is 100 guns on HMS Victory supposedly and I don't think
29:32
I've seen anywhere near that number maybe 20 or so off to the side and then maybe another 30 or so on the wreck oh
29:39
lovely there free swimming congal that's uh that's very nice another good sign that the uh the wreck
29:46
isn't dived very often more guns you know these are absolute Beauties aren't
29:53
they I love the Dolphins I love the uh crests on them they are so so
30:01
spectacular and HMS victory was the last First Rate ship of the line to be built
30:07
entirely with bronze cannons if you go into HMS victory in Portsmouth you'll see that the Cannons are actually um
30:14
Iron and the reason is because bronze cannons although better in terms of they
30:20
don't corrode or anything they're far more expensive to build and therefore the Navy in the interest of C saving
30:29
built ships after this HMS Victory with iron cannons to save money I'm getting
30:35
to the end of my dive here you can see I'm back at the shot you see there's a couple of divers on the shotline one of
30:41
them is Rick the photographer um and these guys are also completing their dive they're all
30:47
heading back up and uh we're starting to say goodbye to another fantastic dive on
30:53
HMS Victory next thing to do is get my strobes which means I'm going to let the
30:59
scooter dangle in the water but actually you get a nice bit of video showing the wreck in kind of plan
31:06
View and you can see the uh the other divers there as well so that's my dive
31:12
on HMS Victory it's an absolute privilege to dive a wreck like this
31:18
there is nowhere else in the world that you can dive a royal Navy First Rate ship of the line there's nowhere where
31:26
you can see that number number of Royal Navy bronze cannons and there's nowhere
31:32
where you can dive knowing that there's 1100 dead Sailors in the local vicinity
31:39
and that is probably the thing that I'm going to uh leave you with just to
31:44
remember that this is a grave site and we should all
31:51
think about the poor Sailors who lost their lives 300 years ago in what must
31:57
must have been horrendous storm conditions well I hope you've enjoyed my
32:04
video I hope you found it interesting I hope you've learned a lot about HMS
32:10
Victory and I hope that you'll have a look at some of my other videos there's
32:15
more great Dives more interesting stories please feel free to like this one view some of the others leave a
32:23
comment subscribe tell your friends and all those other good things
32:29
thank you very much
#Diving & Underwater Activities