HMS Northumberland was a 70-gun third-rate

Third-rate

In the British Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks . Years of experience proved that the third rate ships embodied the best compromise between sailing ability , firepower, and cost...

 ship of the line

Ship of the line

A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...

 of the English

Kingdom of England

The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...

 Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, launched at Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 in 1679.

Service

She fought in the War of the Grand Alliance

War of the Grand Alliance

The Nine Years' War – often called the War of the Grand Alliance, the War of the Palatine Succession, or the War of the League of Augsburg – was a major war of the late 17th century fought between King Louis XIV of France, and a European-wide coalition, the Grand Alliance, led by the Anglo-Dutch...

.

In 1702, she was rebuilt at Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...

, though she was lost with all hands on the Goodwin Sands

Goodwin Sands

The Goodwin Sands is a 10-mile-long sand bank in the English Channel, lying six miles east off Deal in Kent, England. The Brake Bank lying shorewards is part of the same geological unit. As the shoals lie close to major shipping channels, more than 2,000 ships are believed to have been wrecked...

 in the Great Storm

Great Storm of 1703

The Great Storm of 1703 was the most severe storm or natural disaster ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain. It affected southern England and the English Channel in the Kingdom of Great Britain...

 of the following year. Captain Greenway was among the 220 men (including 24 marines) who drowned.

Wreck

The remains of the Northumberland lie south of three wrecks of other ships lost in the same storm - the Stirling Castle, Restoration

HMS Restoration (1678)

HMS Restoration was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, named after the English Restoration. She was built by Betts of Harwich and launched in 1678.She took part in the Battle of Barfleur on 19 May 1692...

 and Mary

HMS Mary (1650)

Speaker was a 50-gun third-rate frigate and the name ship of the , built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England by Christopher Pett at Woolwich Dockyard and launched in 1650. At the Restoration she was renamed HMS Mary...

. The Northumberland and Mary (the latter misidentified as the Restoration) were found by recreational divers in 1980. The site was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973

Protection of Wrecks Act 1973

The Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provides protection for designated shipwrecks. Section 1 of the act provides for wrecks to be designated because of historical, archaeological or artistic value. Section 2 provides for designation of...

 the following year. The current designation is under Statutory Instrument 2004/2395, of a 300 m radius around 51° 15.4802’ N 01° 30.0161’ E.

The Archaeological Diving Unit (ADU) conducted a number of dives on the site over the next three decades and since 1999 technology has been applied in the form of magnetometer

Magnetometer

A magnetometer is a measuring instrument used to measure the strength or direction of a magnetic field either produced in the laboratory or existing in nature...

 and side-scan sonar

Side-scan sonar

Side-scan sonar is a category of sonar system that is used to efficiently create an image of large areas of the sea floor...

surveys. The wreck was originally identified by the discovery of a bell and stock with the naval broad arrow and date; subsequently the ADU have found guns, two copper cauldrons and an anchor. The site consists of a large mound approximately 40 metres (131.2 ft) long by 20 metres (65.6 ft) wide, lying NW/SE near Fork Spit on the western edge of the Goodwin Sands. Parts are 3 metres (9.8 ft) above the surrounding seabed, but much of the structure is thought to be buried below the sand. A dense turf of juvenile mussels covers most features, making it hard to identify them. There is a coherent piece of ship's structure just south of the centre of the designated area, with large timbers and some exposed planking, possibly corresponding to the region between the first and second futtocks (ribs) of the vessel.