HMS Northumberland reveals its secrets after three centuries

The British warship HMS Northumberland was built in 1679 as part of a wave of naval modernisation overseen by Samuel Pepys, a decade after he had stopped writing his celebrated diary and gone on to become the Royal Navy's most senior administrator.

- Esther Addley

Twenty-four years later, after the ship had taken part in many of the major naval battles of its day, it was at the bottom of the North Sea, a victim of the Great Storm of 1703.

Now, another three centuries on, the Northumberland is giving up its secrets thanks to shifting sands off the Kent coast, which have exposed a large section of its hull.