Two people in this story experienced the thrill of making an important discovery. The first was Ron Howell, the diver whose keen eye first caught sight of a small gold ingot sunk in the sand of Salcombe Bay. As he took a closer look, he came across 17 gold coins nestled in the same gully. As required by law, these finds were immediately reported to the Receiver of Wreck, initiating a formal process of reporting and recovery. This then led to the meticulous mapping of the seabed by members of the South West Maritime Archaeological Group (SWMAG), working alongside three archaeologists in what has been described as a model project for cooperation between amateurs and professionals.
One of those experts – David Parham, Professor of Maritime Archaeology at Bournemouth University – picks up the story in the first chapter of the newly published British Museum report on the wreck (see ‘Further reading’ below, as well as our review in CA 438). He explains that the area around the sunken vessel was popular with divers, who had first sighted cannons and anchors on the seabed there in 1982. The day that the first gold discovery was made, the SWMAG members had planned to work on a different site – two protected wrecks in the Erme Estuary – but heavy seas and poor visibility made work there untenable, so they decided to visit the Salcombe cannon site instead, carrying out a survey to select areas for trial excavation to see if any other artefacts or even the remains of a ship were present.
They returned six days later, on 30 April 1995, to begin the survey, and it was then that Ron Howell found the ingot and coins. Nobody in the team had expected to make any discoveries that day, so Ron’s colleagues were amazed to see him clutching pieces of gold in his glove as he was helped back on to the team’s boat. SWMAG members then spent the rest of the year surveying the site, which lies about 400m (0.25 miles) off the coast, at a depth of 16-24m (52-79ft). This involved laying out a grid so that the precise position of every find could be recorded and a detailed plan of the site produced. They excavated four gullies and recovered 447 coins, 67 pieces of jewellery and gold ingots, and 40 other small finds, leaving nine cannons, two swivel guns, and three anchors on the seabed.
