A wreck off Sussex, thought to be that of the 17th century warship HMS Resolution, has been granted protected status.

Martin Wiltshire (left) and Paul Stratford, two of the three divers who found the wreck and were made its licensees

The measure was announced by the Culture Minister, David Lammy, on 29 May, making the wreck a site of historical and cultural importance under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973.

The wreck lies at a mean low water depth of 8.5m, 1.5 miles out in Pevensey Bay. Diving is banned within 100m of the site, the position of which has yet to be released.

The wreck was found in April last year by Eastbourne divers Paul Stratford, Martin Wiltshire and Steve Paice, who chanced upon a large anchor and several cannon.

Wessex Archaeology, acting for English Heritage, was called in. Forty-five large cast iron cannon were located, along with a ballast mound surrounded by wooden ribs and planking protruding from a seabed of sand and silt.

The wreck, if it proves to be HMS Resolution, is owned by the Nautical Museums Trust in Hastings, which bought rights to the yet-to-be-found vessel from the MoD in 1985.

But Stratford, Wiltshire and Paice have been appointed as the site's joint licensees and will oversee maintenance, survey and any excavation, in partnership with Wessex Archaeology. The Nautical Archaeology Society will also be involved.

"We are meeting soon with them, Wessex and English Heritage to discuss the way forward," Paul Stratford told Divernet. "For one thing, we are in need of project funding to support survey and possible sampling work that might lead to a positive identification."

Stratford, Wiltshire and Pace are taking NAS Training courses up to Part III, which will equip them to carry out sophisticated survey work.

HMS Resolution, a Third Rater of 70 guns, was wrecked in the Great Storm of 1703. She hit the Owers Bank off Littlehampton, then limped on around Beachy Head and, seriously flooded, beached in Pevensey Bay.

Potential project supporters are invited to contact Paul Stratford at strats@gatwicktvr.co.uk

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