Over centuries the treacherous Goodwin Sands off Kent – known as the great “ship swallower” – has entombed more than 2,000 shipwrecks, dozens of second world war aircraft and is the final resting place of thousands. Shakespeare described it as “a very dangerous flat, and fatal”.
In 1703, five vessels were sucked into its shifting sands during a storm, including the English warship HMS Northumberland, which only now is yielding its well-preserved secrets.
