The Maritime History of Wales 1: The Porth Felen Anchor Stock

November 2021

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  Sam Willis 

  From the Society for Nautical Research in partnership with Lloyd’s Register foundation, I’m Sam Willis. And this is the mariners mirror podcast, the world’s number one podcast dedicated to all of maritime history

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Hello and welcome back to the mariners mirror podcast. This is the first episode of our series exploring the maritime history of Wales. My name is Eirwen Abberley Watton and I’m from the Brecon Beacons area. Today I’m finding out about an anchor stock found at Porth Felen, a beautiful bay at the very tip of the Lleyn Peninsula in Gwynedd, North Wales. For those of you who don’t know, an anchor stock is a beam of wood or iron placed at the upper end of the shank of an anchor, transversely to the plain of the arms, which serves to keep the anchor from lying flat on the seabed. I came across this anchor stock doing some research into the maritime history of Wales. And I was delighted to discover that it is a unique find in British waters. It’s unique because of its possible age. I couldn’t believe this myself, but there is every chance that this anchor stock is Roman. So it was found in 1974 in the Bardsey Sound, which is a very dangerous stretch of water. So it’s safe to assume that the ship carrying this anchor came to its end here. It’s a very interesting find., and there’s lots to speculate about in terms of its origin and what it was doing in Welsh waters. So let’s dive right in. Today I’m speaking with Jake Davis. Jake is a Welsh based marine biologist and underwater videographer with a passion for sharing the underwater marine environment of the Welsh coast. As a diver, he’s not just interested in marine life, but also the amount of history and stories that are below the waves of the Welsh coast. Recently, thanks to funding from the Cambrian Archaeology Society and Gaynor Cemlyn Jones Tust, Jake got to lead exploratory dives at Porth Felon in to look for any evidence related to the roman anchor stock discovered by divers back in 1974. Thank you so much for talking to me today, Jake,

   

  Jake Davis 

  No worries, a real pleasure to be able to have a chat about all this.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Yeah. So please tell us about this wonderful find.

   

  Jake Davis 

  I’m a diver based in North Wales. And earlier this year, we got some funds together to go and look at Porth Felen which is situated under  Uwchmynnydd on the Lleyn Peninsula on the west part there overlooking Bardsey, this was a really cool site.  We got funding from the Cambrian Archaelogy Society, and the Gaynor Cernlyn Jones Trust, to go and explore this because back in the 1974, I think, divers found an anchor stock there. Believed to be the earliest kind of evidence of northward from the Mediterranean area. So we really want to get back into that site and see if we can find any more of these artefacts in the wreak or part of the wreck itself, because it was never actually found when they found the anchor stock itself.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Could you tell us what an anchor stock actually is?

   

  Jake Davis 

  To describe what it is? It’s the bit this one specifically looked like it had, it was made of lead. So it’s quite long, they had the square patch in the middle of where the wooden bit would go. to put on hold the anchor itself. So it’s quite interesting itself in terms of how it looks. And it’s quite a very rare artefact itself too.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  How confident can you be of when the anchored stock might have come from?

   

  Jake Davis 

  So that they roughly dated at about 140 BC? So it’s got some age to it.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Yeah, it’s incredible.

   

  Jake Davis 

  One of the only examples of it, but one of the couple of examples of it in the UK, so it’s really quite a significant fine. So taking that time to get in a few dives to go and explore a site further was real opportunity to do it. All together. We did. We’ve gotten there four times in March.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  I bet that was a bit cold as well.

   

  Jake Davis 

  Yeah, cold is one way but if we kind of chatted about it, and the best time to do it was that a March April time because the sun hadn’t been out long enough to make the algae grow. So once the algae grown and make looking in that site a lot more challenging, especially when we’re looking almost like a needle in the haystack. Potentially there were other wreaks in the area. So it was kind of keeping an eye out for other artefacts too. There were bits for pottery which we could really see what it was from but it was interesting that there was a other pieces there to be seen.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Of course, yeah. And where the anchor stock was found is that quite a dangerous stretch of water generally,

   

  Jake Davis 

  it’s quite an interesting part because Bardsey Sound is a notable area for shipwrecks, it’s got about 17 currents running into that one sound and you’ve got a couple knots of current running through. Where Porth  Felen situated, it kind of comes up from 30 metres into about 15 metres and straight into the shore with boulders so it’s actually quite sheltered. And as divers  a couple of us have dived that area before and knew it was quite strong currents, but actually we jumped in and have not current in there. So when searching the area is quite nice. Really come up with a nice pattern and each dive and segment the bay into different parts to see if we can do more. We’ve actually got some more planning next year, hopefully, if the weather allows us to do it again, roughly that time of year,

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Do we know what the ship might have been doing in the Bardsey Sound?

   

  Jake Davis 

  So there’s no evidence, but it looks like it was a trade ship. So it’s a very small one. But it’s really that is one of the first pieces of evidence of that northward trade between the North Britain in the Mediterranean area. Which is really interesting to have that right here on our doorstep on the Llynn Peninsula.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Yeah, definitely. I’m not sure if you’ll know the answer to this. But if the ship had been able to land where it planned to what kind of welcome might it have received?

   

  Jake Davis 

  I don’t know. But it’d been, it’d be interesting to see where she was actually heading to, as well. Because once you run into the Llynn Peninsular that,s it you’d be going up into the north of England, possibly into that bit of ground or even actually into Wales themselves.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  I was reading about the anchor stock, and I saw that there was quite an interesting knuckle bone design on it. So if you could tell me more about that. That’d be fantastic.

   

  Jake Davis 

  That specific design that kind of stood out in terms of how it looks compared to other ones, because there are different examples of that lead designed, but from the one that was collected back in 1974, that’s actually now held, if I remember, rightly, in the museum down in Cardiff, so I personally haven’t been see it myself, but it’s some others to do, especially for the next eyes.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  So what are the what are the next items? Is there anything else that you’re working on?

   

  Jake Davis 

  That was one of them? So yeah, let’s say we’ve got a bit more funding that we can go and do next year. But in the past, I’ve done a few of the dives working on both TV and stuff and TV series. One of the most interesting ones is actually the Resurgam off the north coast off Rhyl, which would have been like the first submarine if it ever got to Portsmouth.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Wow, that’s amazing.

   

  Jake Davis 

  It never made it. But there’s a few of those a few of the wrecks on the list that are kind of ones I’d like to go and see and get permissions. A lot of them again, are protected wreaks that you need paperwork and all that for. One of the specific ones, the Bronze Bell off of Barmouth would be really nice to go and see, again, was one of those wrecks that came in inshore got got run aground. But she was carrying a load of Carrara, Italian marble with from what other divers said, it’s pretty remarkable when you see it with these big, big blocks of marble, and they’re underwater and only in 10 metres. So hopefully, plan to do something with that and just gonna see it because, again, some amazing wrecks, off our coast.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  I imagine that would be extraordinary. And I’m actually going to be speaking to somebody about that exact wreck in a few weeks time.

   

  Jake Davis 

  It’d be really cool to hear if they’ve ever dived, there, good. Be in contact with them, because it looks it looks amazing. And the fact that again, a bronze bell of it. But also it was a heavy armoured vessel, it was carrying cannons. So to dive it with all these cannons and these big marble stacks would be really cool to see.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  It sounds like it’d be amazing yeah.

   

  Jake Davis 

  Also film would be really nice to get some nice shots, especially when they’re like the water conditions at the moment of being incredibly clear.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  So in terms of creating a video, which I assume might be for the public. Is there then quite a big delay between discovering something like this, and being able to excavate it, and then finally being able to display it in a museum?

   

  Jake Davis 

  Porth Felen? I think, yeah, it would definitely be one of those things. If something was found, we’d have to get it all signed off, surveyed properly, because that’s where we want to do. These ones we were doing were the kind of preliminary ones, just as, as a small club dive. With all the right permissions to do so, if there was anything found, then we’d go in and get a full survey done on that site.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Yeah, of course. So you mentioned that the Bronze Bell wreck was only 10 metres deep. So I was just wondering if you could tell us anything about maybe the challenges of maritime excavation versus when something’s being found on land?

   

  Jake Davis 

  Yeah, anything underwater, you’re constrained by time, depth, temperature, depending on the time you yea,r in the water  it makes it a lot more challenging. But that also means why a lot of things have still yet to be discovered. Even in a small area, like the west coast, where we’ve got loads of different racks that are noted down on maps. But very few people I’ve actually come across them. I’ve seen them because visibility then is your next challenge. Where when we were doing it, we were quite lucky. We had about six metres and some dives we did have about one and a half metres, which means looking for something is a lot more challenging. But yeah, when you get six metres, it does feel like a bit more possible.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Yeah.I can imagine and I didn’t realise there were so many, I guess different elements to think about in terms of like even the temperature is there. Is there a chance that if you’re underneath for a certain amount of time and a really low temperature it could be a risk to the to the divers

   

  Jake Davis 

  Yeah, so that’s one of the things is actually the cold you get you actually use a lot more air to then your time on the water is even more reduced. On top of all of So trying to kind of keep warm is one of those key things. And luckily for things where you’re searching for stuff, it’s not too bad because you’re continuously moving. In other scenarios where you’re filming and you’re not moving much, cold really does creep up and you quite quickly.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  And I think you mentioned, they haven’t found anything else where the anchor stock was discovered.

   

  Jake Davis 

  No, so there was nothing else at that site. When they found it back in 1974, there was potential that we were looking for some old stone anchors as well. But looking for stone anchors in a place full of boulders and a lot of rocks, which also may be in the ballast as well is a real challenge.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Is there a chance that something like that could have travelled a considerable distance in the water

   

  Jake Davis 

  With that kind of position at Porth Felen, it’s quite fortunate that a lot of the prevailing winds for that area are actually coming from the south and southeast area, which actually blow straight into Porth Felen. Means that if anything was there, the likelihood of, of it being there still is quite good, but it’d be pushed more inshore each time, along with all the other big boulders and things like that. But I think it’s one of those, I think they were diving it. And they found that they were diving at quite often. And every time they were diving coming across something different, and it’s a about time, because on land, you can spend a lot more time wandering around the same same patch, and more fortunate to come across it. If you’re diving it maybe once or twice a year, it’s not very often. And then likelihood of spotting something new is quite difficult.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Of course, it’s been a while now since the anchor stock was actually discovered. So you mentioned that it’s in the museum in Cardiff. And what kind of process happens with the preservation, for something like that,

   

  Jake Davis 

  Again, it’s metal, so with a metal have to make sure it would have been thoroughly cleaned or kept in into some kind of liquid which preserves it a bit longer, or at least gets rid of the salt. Because when once anything’s been removed from the water, and it becomes oxidised with the air, it kind of perishes so quickly.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Oh, it sounds like a really interesting project who have been involved in it’s amazing. I think that Wales is having finds like this, because obviously we’re very small, a small place.

   

  Jake Davis 

  But yeah, loads of significant wrecks the whole way along the coast. piece of history still remaining out there, which really excited,

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Which is incredible, because when I read about this, I couldn’t believe how old it is how long it must have been sat under the water.

   

  Jake Davis 

  Yeah. And it’s like when you think about how long it’s sat there. So when for 140 BC, and it was found in 1974, where we’re saying things have changed between that last 50 years. There’s nothing compared to what it had been there before it been found. So the likelihood of finding something is still quite high, because we’re talking a very small timescale between when they found something and when we’re looking for something.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  And it’s very interesting to think about, at a time when it wrecked, people might have come across things on the shore, or there might be artefacts kind of dotted all around the country in that sense.

   

  Jake Davis 

  Yeah, yeah, it’s always gonna be there. And it’s like, you don’t know when that thing could reappear.

   

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Well, now that I’ve heard about it, I kind of want to go and visit it as well. Thank you so much for talking to me today. It’s been really interesting.

   

  Jake Davis 

  No worries. No, thank you for letting me have a chat and sharing more about the recent dive.

  Eirwen Abberley Watton 

  Thank you so much for listening. And I hope you enjoyed learning more about this wonderful find. Please do go and find us on social media. You can search the mariners mirror podcast on Instagram, and YouTube. We appreciate every bit of support, and we love to hear from you. So do get in touch and tell us what you think. Or you can leave a review on iTunes. There is a free forum to get in touch on the Society for Nautical Researchers website, which you can find it snr.org.uk. Even better, if you join the Society for a small annual subscription. Your support will help us to continue with our project of exploring and celebrating our precious maritime past. Join me next time to hear about the Newport mediaeval ship, which is an incredibly preserved 15th century merchant vessel, which was unearthed in the River Usk in 2002. I’ll see you then.

Category: Shipwrecks | Navigation | Archaeology | Wales