17th CENTURY MERCHANTMAN WRECKED AT RILL COVE, THE LIZARD CORNWALL, CIRCA 1618.

It is perhaps ironic that one of the most famous wrecks in Cornwall, known for over 300 years, talked of in bated breath and with glint of eye, and also the best documented wreck, should prove to be the most elusive, For it seems certain, that the wreck found originally by K. Simpson and M. Hall of the Lizard Diving Centre, and later joined by R. Larn and R. Davis, is the fabled Lizard "Silver Wreck". The site is one af the hardest in the area to work with enormous movements of sand so much so that the site is now totally unaccessible under no less than 20 feet of gravel and sand, surveys identified the extent of the site but soon the sand started to return and within a few months, it was necessary to dig a hole 50 feet in diameter and 15 feet deep to survey one square metre. This was no longer justifiable and the site had to be left under the protective covering until once again a shift of tide and wind scours the site clean again. The coins, aIl "cobs"' of Philip II and III, are very very interesting, for many of them represent the first coins minted in the Spanish American Colonies and sent home to Spain. Many are undated and others tantalisingly miss all, or (even more frustrating) part of the date, The mint marks are often clear and inciude the rare early Mexico, Lima and Potosi marks, and many are in fine clear and well cut condition.

Perhaps, however, the real fascination in this unnamed wreck is the large amount of documentation that has been unearthed regarding it's salvage. James I, Charles I, his High Court Officials, Cornish Knights, opportunist Lighthouse Builders, Cornish Workmen, famous divers, embezzlers, all have emerged from the documentation unearthed whilst the sand overwhelmed the wreck.

Over 100 documents, mostly in the ornate pleonastic language of official court scribes of the 17th Century, when deciphered draw a picture starting in 1618 when Sir Francis Vivian Knight is commanded by the king's council to deliver up "certain barres of silver lately taken upp out of the sea upp on the coaste of Cornwall" to the Earl of Nottingham.

Obviously the King and later Charles I, are much converned in this very large treasure, at times they forbid Sir Francis Vivian to recover or let anyone else recover the silver. Then they bid him to re-start recovery reflecting that "... if that means be not used to take up the said barres this somer beinge the best and cheifest tyme of yeare for ffectinge thereof it is likely that the roughe and boisterous stormes of the nexte winter will overwhelme it with soe much sand and gravel tht it will be a matter both difficulte and hopeless to recover any of them ever hereafter..." How right they were! They recommend divers, one James Harris and one Carter to help Sir Francis, and pay quite large sums in reward, £50 to Mr. Godolphin and £50 to Mr. Burtin in 1621.

Then in 1622 comes the smell of embezzlement. One of Prince Charles' tenants in Helston is rewarded with £50 for giving information, in the same year Sir Francis is to question and interrogate some men with the Cornish names of Hicks, John Rosewarne, Penrose, Webber and Mason, who had arranged for one Tristrem Lord to sell the stolen bar in Amsterdam for £200. John Rosewarne had friends at Court for a few months later Sir Francis is "called off" Mr. John Rosewarne, and so the stroy continues with other divers, such as the famous Jacob Johnson in 1628 diving on the wreck.

The scene is complicated by a long series of correspondence by and to Sir John Killigrew of Arwenack, Falmouth, who is trying to finance the erection of a Lighthouse at The Lizard. Some reports infer that this was to aid his own smuggling activities in the Helford. He refers to many wrecks on the Lizard and implies that the "Silver Wreck" was a Dutchman but he was trying to get the Dutch to contribute to his light (which they in fact did!) so no great value can be put on his testimony, and even 100 years later when the Georgians were diving on the wreck, no name is given. In 1879 Henry Fox in a paper on the Lizard Lighthouse, quotes from a document suggesting the name "Gibson" but on checking the transcription of the original to verify this statement, it was found that an entire new sentence had been added, possibly from another source available in 1879 - thus another blind alley.

But more than this mystery of lacking a name is the incredible fact that in all the documents, there is no mention of anyone claiming the wreck.

If it had been an English naval or mercantile wreck, then the Admiralty Court would have known and presumably they would not have had all the problems of rewards and writs. So although the Princes' and Kings' Council was eager to get their hands on the silver, we can presume it was not an English wreck.

Certainly had it been Dutch they would have been quick off the mark in seeking to send over their divers as is seen in the report of the Princesse Maria elsewhere in this catalogue, and the same must apply to the other European countries with a mercantile trade at that time.

So the elusive trail is not yet complete, and we end our sale with these fine coins that no one claimed, and yet helped to maintain the extravagant Stuarts, a ship as yet without a name other than the resounding "Lizard Silver Wreck".