The Fate of the White Ship

historic shipwreck

The Norman’s latest addition to its fleet, the White Ship, singlehandedly changed the kingship succession in England in 1120 after one disastrous night. Never did any one ship change the course of England’s kingship than the White Ship who brought down and killed then budding Prince William I (William the Aethling), the only successor of King Henry I. The king had many sons and daughters but William the Aethling was the only legitimate heir to the throne. All the hopes of King Henry I rest upon William I’s shoulders, which the young prince took well with great honors and achievement at a young age.

Before the fateful voyage

After Henry I reasserted his rule over Normandy and assured support for his son Prince William I as the Duke of Normandy from King Louis VI of France, his party together with Prince William I and several nobles are now heading back to England. At the port in Barfleur, King Hendry I was greeted by Captain Thomas Fitz Stephen and told that he would be honored if the king would choose the White Ship to carry him back to England. Somehow the king told the captain that the honor is reversed if he’d let his son sail onboard the White Ship that night.

The beginning of the end of the White Ship

Coming from another victorious negotiation with the French ruler, the mood onboard the ship was very festive. Wine and ego awash the ship as Prince William the Aethling led the high spirits just before the perilous voyage that would kill everybody onboard except one. The atmosphere onboard the ship was toxic enough that the bishop who came to bless the voyage did not stay a moment longer after performing his duty. Prince William I’s party was late to depart the harbor; his father’s ship left hours before the White Ship.

The end of the White Ship

As the spirit and his ego dictates Prince William I’s decisions that night, he ordered the equally intoxicated captain to sail full speed ahead to pass the king’s ship along the way. But their lack abruptly ended when the White Ship hit a rock hard that the port’s wooden hull cracked open a gaping hole. White Ship was taking on water very quickly as Prince William I’s bodyguard rushed him to a dinghy to sail away from the ill-fated ship. As the only survivor, a butcher from Rouen, told England, the prince’s dinghy left the boat safely when William I heard her half sister’s cry for help and ordered the men to row back to her rescue. His decision proved to be fatal as people clung to the dinghy dragging it down without a trace into the cold English Channel’s water. Since then, Henry I never was seen smiling in desperate search for his successor.

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