Just remembered this from six years ago.

Over forty Bronze Age tin ingots from Devon, recovered from the Erme Estuary, are to be donated to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter by the South West Maritime Archaeological Group. These rare ingots were reported as wreck to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's Receiver of Wreck. Since the ingots were discovered in 1991, by the South West Maritime Archeological Group, the Department for Culture, Media and Sports has designated the site under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 as being of national historical interest.
John Allan, curator of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum said: "We regard this group of ingots as a very significant discovery and are delighted that they are now at Exeter Museum, where a selection of them is displayed."
The ingots are of different shapes and sizes, ranging from approx. 10cm to 20cm in diameter. The ingots may have been in the Erme estuary as a result of a vessel capsizing while trading along the coast between Cornwall and Devon and may offer an example of the type of trade and cultural exchange taking place at this time.

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Just remembered this from six years ago.

Over forty Bronze Age tin ingots from Devon, recovered from the Erme Estuary, are to be donated to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter by the South West Maritime Archaeological Group. These rare ingots were reported as wreck to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's Receiver of Wreck. Since the ingots were discovered in 1991, by the South West Maritime Archeological Group, the Department for Culture, Media and Sports has designated the site under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 as being of national historical interest.
John Allan, curator of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum said: "We regard this group of ingots as a very significant discovery and are delighted that they are now at Exeter Museum, where a selection of them is displayed."
The ingots are of different shapes and sizes, ranging from approx. 10cm to 20cm in diameter. The ingots may have been in the Erme estuary as a result of a vessel capsizing while trading along the coast between Cornwall and Devon and may offer an example of the type of trade and cultural exchange taking place at this time.

Now will we have the divers protesting that they should have been left where they were so that other divers could go down and enjoy them?
:lol:

I'm sure we would if they'd had to smash up a coral reef or an underwater cliff to get them out...

They would certainly have had to disturb the silt. That silt could have been important. It may have contained layers that were a record of the history of the site. Patterns in those layers could have given information about the direction of flow of the currents. Organic matter might have been carbon dated, but it is now all churned up and out of context. I am not against retrieving prehistoric ingots, but not at the expense of historical sedimentological remains. Better they remain buried in the sediments where we can all go and observe and enjoy them in their proper place. Leave the sea floor alone.

If you'll excuse the slight ignorance, I'd suggest that the only useful sediments are those which are considerably older and thus compacted.

The history of the Menai Strait has been refined recently through the use of a jack-up drilling rig to take core samples - a commercial rate for such a device is about £20,000 per week, so it's utterly pointless to suggest that no bit of seabed should be disturbed just in case someone wants to investigate the sediments.

Digging up bits of seabed to remove wrecks is a perfectly justifiable operation as there is plenty of similar seabed around them, the vast, vast majority of which will never be of interest to anyone.




Now then, back on topic. :)

Does anyone know anything about the slate ship found off Pwll Fanog on the Menai Strait, which has slates from Llanberis which were quarried in the 14th or 15th Century...?

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She's still there, isn't she, Vanoord?
Somebody in Marine Science, Menai Bridge, will know.
There's also the one in Llanberis.

Ah yes, she is indeed still there. And I, at this particular moment, have a slate from her on my desk - legally acquired I hasten to add as the wreck is protected! This one was brought up by the original dive surveys and has since passed through to these offices.

I'll put up a couple of pics shortly...

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So now there is only 22,999 slates left.

The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology & Underwater Exploration 7, 1978, 152-9, pls, figs, refs.ISSN 1057-2414,

Discovery of an undocumented wreck containing c 23,000 slates, possibly of Tudor date (?1530) is reported.

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You lucky devil, Vanoord! Treasure it! :thumbsup:

Brief background of the Pwll Fanog slate ship here: http://www.aditnow.co.uk/community/viewtopic.aspx?t=1592 

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