The ship was the largest and, with 110 brass cannons, the most heavily armed vessel of its day.
It was the inspiration for the HMS Victory famously commanded by Adm. Horatio Nelson decades later.
I was wondering if Horatio’s hip was named in honor of this earlier one.
Story doesn’t say why it sunk though - nor why that much gold coins was aboard. Homebound or outboard?
The cannon are actually bronze, brass cannon of this size were not used by the Royal Navy.
As a Royal Naval vessel, the UK can claim soverign immunity from arrest as salvage. That immunity would probably even apply to the reported commercial cargo, gold coin owned by Portuguese merchants. However, Odyssey Marine, the salvors already have an agreement in place with the UK to salvage an earlier shipwreck, HMS Sussex, and therefore probably have reached a similar agreement with the UK on this wreck.
Using government vessels to carry commercial cargo was not uncommon in this period, especially precious metals and jewels. Shipping in a warship was considerably safer than using commercial shipping, and the Captain was entitled to freight - payment for carrying the cargo. Many Captains were only to happy to agree to the shipments.
900 sailors were aboard when Victory went down, so there will undoubtedly be controversy over the disturbance of a war grave. However, hundreds were also lost when the Mary Rose capsized in the Solent. This did not deter the efforts to raise her, and remains were found when the vessel was excavated. I would expect that Victory is much less likely to contain remains - a deep sea shipwreck would have much less sediment that might preserve any organic material.
Cannons were never cast from Brass which simply too weak an alloy to sustain the pressures needed for a cannon. They were cast from Bronze, much like large statues;however, they were polished to a near mirror finish, which resembled brass, hence the name.