Grace Dieu
Marker: recorded wreck position (Date not recorded).
Key facts
| Name | Grace Dieu | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Ship type | warship | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Nationality / flag | Kingdom of England | Wikidata P137 operator → P17 country |
| Operator | English Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Nearest coast | England | official dataset |
| Position | 50.8924, -1.2887 | Historic England Protected Wreck Sites, listed latitude/longitude (OGL v3) |
| Protected Wreck | List entry 1000061 | Historic England |
| Designated | 1974-01-12 | Historic England |
| Restricted area | 2.27 ha | Historic England |
| Grid reference | SU5012510567 | Historic England |
About the wreck
Grace Dieu was the flagship of King Henry V of England and one of the largest ships of her time. Launched in 1418, she sailed on only one voyage and was subsequently laid up at anchor in the River Hamble. She burned in 1439 after being struck by lightning. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
Diving & visiting
This is a designated Protected Wreck under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. Under the Act, diving on or otherwise interfering with the wreck inside its restricted area requires a licence; see the Historic England list entry for details.
The remains of Grace Dieu are still in the River Hamble at Bursledon, near Southampton, Hampshire. Until 1933 the wreck was believed to be that of a Danish galley or a nineteenth-century merchant ship, but in that year a proper survey established both the true identity of the wreck, and the great size of the ship. The site was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act on 5 February 1974. The ship was surveyed and partially excavated by the National Maritime Museum in the 1980s and more recently by the University of Southampton's Centre for Maritime Archaeology. In 2004 this work was filmed for Channel 4's archaeology programme Time Team (2005: Series 12 Episode 6)).
Location
- Recorded position: 50.8924, -1.2887 (Historic England Protected Wreck Sites, listed latitude/longitude (OGL v3); may be approximate)
- Nearest coast: England
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Grace Dieu (ship) (revision 1355878405), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Rediscovery”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Protected Wreck data © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- Holigost 0 km
- Unknown Wreck off Thorness Bay 17 km
- Mary Rose 1545 · 19 km
- HMS Royal George 1782 · 19 km
- HMS Invincible 1758 · 24 km
- Yarmouth Roads Wreck 25 km
Browse more: UK & Ireland wrecks · wrecks off England