HMS Gloucester that sank whilst carrying future King James II could be raised like the Mary Rose

The wreck of a royal warship that sank 340 years ago whilst carrying the future King James II could be raised from the seabed in an operation similar to the incredible recovery of the Mary Rose.

The discovery of HMS Gloucester, 28 miles off the coast of Great Yarmouth, was announced last week.

The wreck had been found by amateur divers in 2007 but the news was kept secret to allow many artefacts to be carefully salvaged from the sea.

Professor Claire Jowitt, a maritime history expert at the University of East Anglia, called it the most important maritime discovery since the Mary Rose – the warship from the Tudor navy of King Henry VIII – was raised in 1982.

Now, the former head of the British Army, Lord Dannatt, who is due to chair a charity caring for items recovered from the…