Introducing Mark Milburn’s Cornish Wreck Ramblings

In a new ongoing series on Scubaverse.com, Mark Milburn of Atlantic Scuba in Falmouth investigates the many shipwrecks that can be found around the UK’s Cornish coastline…

How many wrecks are there around Cornwall?

I quite often get asked that question, and it’s one that has no simple answer. The Manacles, an area of 4 square miles, has fifty known wrecks. That’s fifty wrecks in four miles! Cornwall has hundreds of miles of coastline. Almost every day, previously unknown wrecks come to light. Just a week ago we found an old document that refers to thirty four wrecks on three miles of coastline that sank over a period of just sixty years.

Three of these were previously known, whilst thirty one of them were not. Today, I was talking to a retired dive boat skipper about an old cannon site. I had been told of the site by a diver who did a dive there many years ago. He confirmed that he saw cannons there. He also said there was another site in the shallows, covered in kelp. He then told me of a wooden ship further off in forty five metres.

During random dives, I have seen many a wreck related item. Keel or trim weights laying on the sea bed, outlines of wrecks in the sand, or even an engine. Whenever we have researched what the items may have been from, sometimes we have drawn a blank.

Books like Richard and Bridget Larn’s “Shipwrecks Index of the British Isles Vol 1” contains thousands of ships that have been wrecked around Cornwall. Historic England started with this Index and have built on it. They have stated that if they published their current database, in the same style as the original but with all the new wrecks listed, each original volume would be replaced by twenty new volumes. Historic England estimate their list as being around 34,000 wrecks around the UK. But they think there are many more.

Helston museum has two oil paintings of ships being wrecked with rescuers on the shore. These wrecks are not listed in an index anywhere, yet someone painted them while it happened. Old Church records around Cornwall have a lot of references of bodies washing ashore, sometimes every day for several days. These were more than likely wreck related, ships that foundered out of sight of anyone and were smashed before anyone found them.

So when someone asks me how many wrecks are there around Cornwall, I reply “More than I could dive in a lifetime.”

Join us next week for Part 1 of Mark Milburn’s Cornish Wreck Ramblings!

Find out more about Mark and Atlantic Scuba at www.atlanticscuba.co.uk.