Search on again for Francis Drake’s Golden Hind in Deptford

Archaeologists are scouring a wharf in Deptford in the hope of discovering the Golden Hind — the galleon that Sir Francis Drake sailed to the New World in 1577.

Experts started digging at the Convoys Wharf site last month in the first major attempt to find remnants of the ship since the Seventies.

Pieter van der Merwe, of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, said: "After Drake's return, Queen Elizabeth decreed that the Golden Hind be preserved in perpetuity at Deptford."

He said it remained there until well into the 17th century but began to disintegrate in 1660.