Britain is an Island. Islands are
affected by their link with the sea. Britain’s
history as a naval, mercantile, and industrial power
is well documented. Because Britain used its seas as
a defence, as a supply link to import and export goods,
and as a means of transport for travellers, her coastlines,
harbours, and ports have been busy. A high volume
of seafaring leads to shipwrecks. Britain possibly
has the highest concentration of shipwrecks in the
world.
At the western edge of the kingdom, Wales
suffers from severe weather. Traffic from Wales
went to Ireland, other parts of Britain, and
the continent. In medieval times, Beaumaris
was the main port for Anglesey and Chester
the chief port for England. Cargoes comprised
wool, wine, and agricultural produce. Also,
there were travellers. Recorded shipwrecks
date from medieval times. |
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Owain Roberts proposes that a site at Llyn Cerrig
Bach, which had been believed to be a site of religious
offerings, is an ancient Iron Age shipwreck (Roberts,
2002). The Pwll Fanog Wreck in the Menai straits
is a late medieval wreck. Its cargo of slates is
intact (Jones, 1978). An unidentified wreck—the
Tal y Bont Wreck, discovered in 1978 near Barmouth,
Gwynedd—is dated between 1677 and 1702.
Many early shipwrecks around Welsh ports involved
local ferries. In 1664, the Abermenai ferry sank
near Newborough in Anglesey. The ferry had arrived
safely from Caernarfon with 80 passengers on board.
It drifted into deep water while the ferryman argued
at the dock with a passenger about the penny fare.
The drifting ship capsized. Seventy-nine—all
but one of them—passengers died (Eames, 1973).
The Royal Yacht Mary
Shipwrecks conjure vivid and elaborate images—howling
winds, waves thundering in clouds of spray
across half submerged decks, screams of victims,
dark swirling waters. Shipwrecks are the stuff
of legends. They are the inspiration for artists,
poets and writers. Figure 1 shows an artist’s
impression of the Royal Yacht Mary. She is
one of the oldest wrecks around North Wales.
She sank in 1675. Mary was the first British
royal yacht. Her cabins were decorated with
gold leaf; her furniture was holstered in leather;
a unicorn adorned her bows. The Dutch East
India Company built her for Charles II. The
king raced her. Later, he gave her to the Royal
Navy in 1661 to transport dignitaries. Mary
was the first yacht outside Holland; she was
the ancestor of the thousands of sailing dinghies
and racing yachts sailing around Britain today
(Skidmore, 1979). |
Figure 1 – Royal Yacht Mary by Johan
van der Hagen (1710). Courtesy of the National
Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
|
Driven into the coast by bad winds and fog, she
wrecked on the rocks of the Skerries. The Earl of
Meath and 33 of the 73 on board died. The survivors
climbed the mast. William Burslow, the ship’s
captain, died trying to lead the earl across the
mast. The surviving crew and passengers set light
to gunpowder flasks for warmth; they drank the whisky
that they found floating from the wreck. They waited
for two days on the rocks before being rescued by
a vessel from Beaumaris.
The wreck of the Mary was discovered
by accident on July 11, 1971 by a party of
divers from the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC).
The divers were looking for lobsters when they
found the Mary’s four bronze cannons.
Artefacts from the Mary are on display at Liverpool
museum. They include Captain Burslow’s
personal plate, silver spoon and fork, a heavy
gold signet ring, and two hundred silver coins
(Skidmore, 1979). Today the wreck site of the
Mary is protected under the Protection of Wrecks
Act 1973.
During the mid 18th and 19th century, road
traffic across bridges replaced ferry crossings.
Iron steamers replaced wooden sailing ships.
Welsh cargoes of slate, lead, and coal were
shipped all over the world. Liverpool was
the main port for England, and built a transatlantic
trade. The transatlantic traffic to Liverpool
passed close to the rocky shores of Anglesey
and the Lleyn Peninsula. Extreme weather
conditions, heavy traffic, human error, and
poor charts contributed to Wales’s
shipwrecks and disasters. Admiralty Charts
testify to over 400 wrecks around North Wales.
Figure 2 shows a map detailing some of them. |
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Figure 2 – Shipwrecks of North Wales.
Adapted from a map by R.J. Karn for Planaship
Maritime Publications, Cornwall 1984.
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In 1745, Lewis Morris noted in his Plans of Harbours
(1748) the “melancholy account of shipwrecks
and losses, so frequent on the coast of Wales” and
suggested the major causes were storms and inaccurate
charts. Claiming that he had frequently “been
overtaken by violent storms”, Morris was aware
of the dangers of the Welsh coastline and the need
for detailed plans of harbours, bays, and other sheltered
spots (Eames, 1973; Jones, 1973). Robert Dudley in
his Arcano del Mare (1645), one hundred years earlier
than Morris, had warned that the Straits of St George
(between England and Ireland) are “dangerous
seas and wrecks are often heard of” (Eames,
1973).
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