Cromwell's flagship found, by Hook and by Crook

When it sank in the ‘graveyard of a thousand ships’, the Great Lewis was the pride of Oliver Cromwell’s fleet. During a mission to recapture a fort near the Irish port of Waterford from Royalist forces in 1645, Cromwell’s flagship was sent to the bottom of the sea by a combination of enemy cannon and the rocky coastline. Now archaeologists believe they have found the wreck and have begun to bring up the first artefacts.

Historians are already comparing its importance to the discovery of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s flagship, which sank near Portsmouth exactly 100 years before. Cromwell’s attack on Waterford, which involved three other ships, gave rise to a famous saying when the Lord Protector declared he would take the town "by Hook or by Crook", referring to the two headlands which surround it.

Posted by David on July 21, 2003 9:04 AM