Royal dog's 'sawcy antics' shed new light on Gloucester shipwreck
By: Communications
A royal dog whose 'sawcy antics' included stealing the King's food and battling for survival after being shipwrecked is the focus of new University of East Anglia research.
A mixed-breed dog, named Mumper, was reputed to be aboard the Gloucester when the ship sank off the Norfolk coast in 1682 while carrying the future King James II.
More than 130 people are thought to have died in the disaster, which is now recognised as one of the most significant shipwrecks in British history.
But new research – to be unveiled today at the Norwich History Festival - shows that decades after the tragedy, Mumper emerged as the star of colourful tales, political attacks and satirical pamphlets.
Mumper, who was reported to have looked as much ‘like a cub as a dog’, had already achieved a degree of celebrity before boarding the Gloucester.
One eighteenth-century account described the dog's rise from humble beginnings to royal favourite, recounting his “sawcy antics” at court and his privileged position – which included sitting alongside King Charles II at the dinner table and regularly stealing his food, much to the merry monarch’s amusement.
But as the Gloucester disappeared beneath the waves, Mumper would become one of the most talked-about dogs of the time.
At the heart of the tale is royal physician Sir Charles Scarburgh, who survived the sinking. Later accounts claimed that as the ship went down, he found himself competing with Mumper for space on a piece of floating wreckage.
The tale has echoes of James Cameron’s Titanic, with two survivors, one floating plank and a desperate fight for survival. Whether the incident happened remains unclear, but it became one of the most enduring stories connected to the Gloucester.
Maritime Historian Prof Jowitt, from the University of East Anglia, said: “Mumper is one of the most unexpected characters to emerge from the Gloucester story.
“He starts out as a dog on a ship but ends up becoming a political symbol, a satirical character and, in some accounts, the charismatic hero of the story.
“It's a wonderful example of how people used stories about the wreck to promote their own political viewpoints and shape how future generations remembered what happened.”
Following the shipwreck, the dog's story became embroiled in fierce political debate.
Critics of James II used the disaster to argue that the future king was more concerned with rescuing his dogs and Catholic advisers than the passengers and crew stranded on the sinking ship.
Supporters responded with stories suggesting that Mumper, like everyone else aboard, had simply been left to fend for himself.
Prof Jowitt said: “What fascinated me is how long the story survived. Writers were still arguing about Mumper decades after the wreck because the dog had become a way of arguing about James II, religion, loyalty and politics.
“In many ways, the story tells us as much about the people who retold it as it does about the shipwreck itself.”
One of the most colourful versions appeared in a 1704 satire titled The Comical History of the Life and Death of Mumper, Generalissimo of King Charles II's Dogs.
The pamphlet describes Mumper claiming a plank from the wreck and fiercely resisting attempts by survivors to take it from him, allegedly biting his rivals before being swept away by the sea. The author even suggests that the dog was more deserving of survival than the men involved.
The findings form part of the wider Gloucester Project, led by UEA, which continues to uncover new stories connected to the shipwreck discovered off the Norfolk coast in 2007 and publicly revealed in 2022.
A talk from Prof Jowitt at the Norwich History Festival on Monday 20 July will explore Mumper's remarkable afterlife alongside other new research into the people, politics and cultural legacy of the Gloucester.
Prof Jowitt said: “The Gloucester continues to surprise us, alongside nationally significant political history, we find stories that are funny, strange, moving and deeply human – or in this case canine.
“You might come for the tale of a dog and a shipwreck, but you leave with a much richer understanding of seventeenth-century Britain.”
For full programme information and tickets, visit www.norwichhistoryfestival.co.uk.
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