Iron Cargo wrecks

Towing a magnetometer behind a boat for days on end nearly always yields results-but not often the results you wanted. Quite often the hits turn out to be rubbish but occasionally another wreck entirely from the one you are looking for shows up. In this case its ships with an iron cargo. These kinds of hits always gets the treasure hunters juices flowing. This is because you are looking for a similar size hit. An iron cargo mound will give off a similar sized hit as a decent cannon site. This has happened to me quite often and it always makes me wonder if I should employ a reverse psychology, by looking for these iron cargo ships -because then maybe I may find the actual cannon site wrecks Im looking for.  Lets take a look at a few of these below. All are wrecks I have inadvertently found over the years. The first three images are of a wreck I found south east of the Crim reef. It turned out to be the Bassenthwaite lost in 1836. I found this one while looking for HMS Romney. At the time it was very disappointing. But in time it turned into quite an interesting wreck in its own right. I quite like diving this one now as you never know what it is going to reveal next. It is in 30+meters and has a very eclectic cargo surrounding a huge iron cargo. It was copper nailed and copper bottomed.

The whole sea bed here seems made of iron

My torch picks out  cannons on the Bassenthwaite

 The next two images below is what I believe to be the wreck of the Padstow lost in 1804.  I found this iron cargo wreck while hunting around the Spanish Ledges. The images look like rock but it is all iron items in a huge solid concretion. Again I was hoping for an old spanish cannon site but got this instead.  I remember the first dive on it when my eyes told me what I wanted to see. It is in a very strong tidal zone in 20m of water. I wanted it to be a cannon site so much that in my excitement I had convinced myself I was looking at guns all concreted together and I said as much to a friend later that day.  The second dive proved the reality of simple iron castings like rail tracking and pig iron and instead of a 17th century site it was an early 19th c or late 18th c at best. The anchors were of that period around 1800 and English.  The debris trail was towards the Spanish ledge so she must have glanced off that reef and sank nearby.

 A big conger lives under the iron mound.

Padstows iron mound 

The two images below are of an unidentified site I believe to be the wreck of the Plenty. I found this one on my birthday in 2005. I had read a passage in a book written in 1852 regarding an indiaman lost in that area where the wreck now lays. I magged all day for the indiaman and got this juicy hit off little ganinick island. I thought it was going to be a cannon site and a fab birthday present. The wreck was another iron cargo vessel. This time it was carrying replacement mining equipment. There were numerous wheels on the site so I dubbed it the 'Wheels wreck.' as I had no positive ID of the ship then. Since then research I think has proven it to be the Wreck of the 'Plenty' lost in 1840. This is because a narrative placed its loss in 44ft of water just 1 mile away from St Marys. This wreck fits that description and date.. Its an interesting site but not my kind of wreck and certainly not what I was hoping it to be.  To cut a long story short the site received a government protected order over it-this was as a direct result of a request by the Trevithick society in Cornwall and not anything of my doing. Not quite sure what it is being protected from though?, and as a result of the government order noone ever dives it.  The trevithick society thought it was an important find and this was the result. Sadly, I have not dived it since as I cant be bothered with the unnecessary paperwork needed to visit it.

A couple of the many wheels found on the site

My wife measures one of a few iron clack valves found on the 'Wheels wreck' site.