In today’s History newsletter: These detectives want your help in finding Nazi-looted art, how a National Geographic cartographer had to invent a compass to explore the North Pole, and a dive into the real story of the emperor Constantine.

But first: How one catastrophic shipwreck sank a medieval dynasty. 

It should have been a fairly routine English Channel crossing for the boisterous and boozy crowd of young nobles aboard—a party that included the sole legitimate male heir to England. Only it all went horribly wrong when the crew rowed right onto a rock and around 300 people plunged into the icy water. Nearly every one of them died, causing violent consequences for England.

Thanks for reading today’s newsletter, edited and curated by William O'Connor and produced by Alisher Egamov. Sign up here to get our future adventures in your inbox.