Ghostly ship skeleton emerges on Welsh beach

Shifting sands on a Welsh beach have revealed the skeletal remains of a long-lost trading vessel believed to have been sunk in the late 1800s. A photo of the remains on Warren beach in Abersoch, Gwynedd shows the seaweed-covered wooden frame almost entirely buried by the sand.

Entirely submerged for several years, the ship's outline has once-again made an appearance on a beach fronted by the nearby Warren Holiday Park. It's a reminder of the rich maritime history of the Llyn Peninsula and how, until the 20th century, most local trade was conducted by sea and many a merchant vessel paid a heavy price on the peninsula’s treacherous coast.

The shipwreck is thought to be that of the Fosil, a small ship driven ashore, according to North Wales Live. She is one of two 19th century shipwrecks on the beach, the other traditionally believed to be that of the Maria of Aberystwyth, lost in Abersoch Bay in 1872.

The Fosil (also written as Fossil and Fossile) played a small but important part in placing Porthmadog at the centre of the international slate trade. The 38-tonne wooden sloop was built in Pwllheli in 1850 and was owned by Captain David Davies of Llanbedrog.

The most plausible explanation for the Fosil ending up on Warren beach is it being wrecked there shortly after 1890 or was abandoned on the beach and later dislodged by a storm in October 1902. A cargo of broken slates nearby suggests the former.

However recent research by the Cherish project - set up to examine the impacts of climate change on the Welsh coast – has cast doubt on these claims. Its work suggests the two Warren beach wrecks “could relate to any of at least 28 shipwrecks known to have been wrecked in the Abersoch area during the 19th century.”

The frequency of wrecks meant that coastal residents would sometimes plunder bounty yielded up by stormy seas. Famously, when the “Stuart” was wrecked at Porth Tŷ Mawr on Pen Llŷn’s northern coast on Easter Saturday 1901, locals quickly took interest in her cargo.

She was en route from Liverpool to New Zealand with a load that included pianos, pottery, candles and a sizeable amount of whisky. People would rise at first light to search the beach for alcoholic booty washed ashore – then hide the bottles in nearby gorse until patrolling police and the Customs officers turned their backs. One woman was said to have sown false pockets in her petticoat.

Porth Tŷ Mawr was subsequently nicknamed "Porth Wisgi". Years after Pen Llŷn’s own Whisky Galore, it was said that many an illicit bottle was still stashed away in local homes. Even today, whisky bottles are still being washed up there.

According to Coflein, the online database for the National Monuments Record of Wales (NMRW), the appearance of Fosil on the shoreline may be fleeting. “The lack of barnacle growth on the timbers confirms recent and not frequent exposure,” it said.

This is confirmed by the Cherish project. When its staff visited the beach, staff noted that both wrecks were “visibly be-sanded” with only small sections left exposed. “This starkly contrasts with previous years and really highlights the dynamic nature of the inter-tidal zone,” they wrote.