HMS Resolution was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Harwich Dockyard on 6 December 1667.

[3] She was later girdled, which increased her breadth slightly, and underwent a rebuilding in 1698 – although this limited reconstruction did not involve taking her hull to pieces.

[2] In the Great Storm of 1703 in Pevensey Bay, East Sussex, she hit the Owers Bank off Littlehampton before the crew could even get up sail, then blown across the Solent, limping on around Beachy Head.

In April 2005, a well-preserved wreck believed to be hers was discovered by 3 divers attempting to recover a tangled-up lobster pot 1+1⁄2 miles offshore and 9 metres below sea level, at approximately 50°48′10″N 0°24′38″E / 50.80278°N 0.41056°E / 50.80278; 0.41056.

It was only when a 12 ft anchor appeared that Paul Stratford, Martin Wiltshire, and Steve Paice then found dozens of cast-iron cannon around a timber hull.

This found at least 45 large cannon, along with a ballast mound surrounded by wooden ribs and planking protruding from a seabed of sand and silt.

The site was then in May 2006 made public and given official protection under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973, banning unauthorised diving within 100 m, by culture Minister David Lammy[3] Martin Wiltshire and Steve Paice allowed Paul Stratford take on the responsibilities of licensee applicant.

If the wreck does prove to be HMS Resolution, it is already owned by the Nautical Museums Trust in Hastings, which bought rights to the yet-to-be-found vessel from the MoD in 1985.

For now the 3 divers (who are in 2006 taking NAS Training courses up to Part III, which will equip them to carry out sophisticated survey work) have been appointed as the site's joint licensees and will oversee maintenance, survey and any excavation, in partnership with Wessex Archaeology and with involvement from the Nautical Archaeology Society.