Royal shipwreck carrying Charles I’s treasure found off Scotland after 400 years

A centuries-old royal treasure hunt may be over

First reported by The Mirror, the discovery was made by members of Burntisland Heritage, who believe they have located the Blessing of Burntisland around one mile off the Fife coast, buried beneath layers of silt in the Firth of Forth.

The 60ft wooden ship sank in 1633, shortly after King Charles I was crowned King of Scotland in Edinburgh, and it was carrying a huge collection of valuable royal possessions when it went down.

Among the cargo was believed to be gold and silver valuables and a 280-piece silver dining service commissioned by Henry VIII. The entire haul was reportedly worth around £100,000 at the time, which would amount to several hundred million pounds today.

The disaster was particularly dramatic because Charles I was reportedly nearby on his flagship, the Dreadnought, when a sudden storm struck the Blessing. Of the 35 people aboard, only two survived.

Exactly where the ship disappeared remained a mystery for hundreds of years, but Burntisland Heritage says its latest findings provide convincing evidence that it has finally found the wreck.

The group now hopes to begin recovering objects from the site, meaning some of the extraordinary treasures lost in the Firth of Forth nearly 400 years ago could potentially be brought back to the surface.

The lost royal treasure could finally be within reach

The group has now handed a sample of the suspected wreck’s timber to the UK Receiver of Wreck, the Coastguard department that deals with vessels and objects recovered from shipwrecks.

That sample could help establish whether the remains really belong to the Blessing of Burntisland. A specialist diving team is also expected to examine the site in greater detail, which could finally confirm the ship’s identity and reveal whether any of its valuable cargo has survived underwater.

If the discovery is verified, it could become one of Scotland’s most important maritime archaeological finds. The treasure carried by the ship was valued at around £100,000 in the 17th century, equivalent to roughly £30 million today.

Historians believe the Blessing may have been overwhelmed by severe weather, with the situation potentially made worse by the sheer weight of the royal cargo it was carrying.