A local dive operator found the 105-foot-deep wreck in 2019 near the seaside resort Eastbourne, in East Sussex, between Brighton and Hastings. Subsequent work shared by amateur and professional divers has proved that the ship was the 44-gun Klein Hollandia, which was attacked and sunk in 1672, while it was sailing home from the Mediterranean to deliver a cargo of marble tiles for homes. The two countries were not at war at the time but had been twice before that and the Dutch ship had featured heavily in the second of those wars, which the Dutch won. The peacetime attack, which killed Dutch commander Jan Van Nes and some of his crew, along with a number of English sailors who had boarded the ship, was one of the causes of the Third Anglo-Dutch War later that year. The two countries fought four wars in all, striving for dominance on the high seas and in overseas colonies.

The ship's hull was largely intact, officials said. Also found were cannons, Italian marble tiles, and bits of Italian pottery. Further examination of the marble determined that it came from the well-known Apuan Alps. It was one of the cannons, known to be on the Klein Holladnia, that helped officials identify the wreck. The Admiralty of Rotterdam owned the ship, which was built in 1656.

U.K. officials have given the wreck protected status.