THE WRECK OF THE ROYAL YACHT MARY 1675

The Skerries have naturally claimed many shipwrecks both before and after the lighthouse was first built, and many distinguished voyagers were lost. Viscount Thurles, father of the first Duke of Ormonde, was drowned in a shipwreck here on 15th December 1619. By a grim coincidence, Sir Richard Preston, the Earl of Desmond and father of the first Duchess of Ormonde, also drowned in a Skerries shipwreck on 28th October 1628 during passage to Liverpool[1].

By far the most famous loss was that of King Charles II’s former pleasure yacht, the Mary. The Earl of Meath was one of 35 casualties when she was wrecked on the Skerries while on passage from Dublin to the Dee in March 1675. Much has been written about her racing prowess on the Thames but after being wrecked, the Mary lay forgotten in 40 ft [12.19 m] of water until accidentally rediscovered in July 1971.

The Mary was a Dutch design; the word ‘yacht’ is derived from jacht. Charles II chose to sail from Breda in Holland aboard such a vessel to join the English Fleet at the time of his restoration to the throne in 1660. He enthusiastically vowed that he would not rest until he had a jacht of his own, whereupon Mr van Vlooswyk, Mayor of Amsterdam [1a], took the hint and bought the 100 ton burthen Mary from the Dutch East India company. She and a smaller jacht, the Bezan, were thereupon presented to the king for his pleasure.

Secretary of the Navy Samuel Pepys’ Diary for the years from 1660 until 1663 contains eye-witness accounts of a number of episodes from the Mary’s life as a Royal yacht. On 15th August 1660 he writes

To the office; and after dinner by water to White-hall, where I find the King gone this morning by 5 of the clock to see a Dutch pleasure-boat below bridge, where he dines ... the King doth tire all his people that are about him with early rising ... [2]

Until this time, state barges had served as royal pleasure boats. Charles was a skilful seaman and introduced yachts into England, the word not having previously been used. His early rising, sometimes at dawn, for hunting, sailing or tennis was famous. Later that year, on 8th November, Pepys writes

This morning ... went by barge with Sir William Doyly and Mr Prin to Deptford to pay off the Henrietta ... in the afternoon Commissioner Pett and I went on board the Yaght [the Mary]; which endeed [sic] is one of the finest things that ever I saw for neatness and room in so small a vessel. Mr Pett is to make one to out-do this for the Honour of his country, which I fear he will scarce better.[3]

In fact, Pett was equal to the challenge[4]. His yacht the Catherine was later admitted by Pepys to be ‘much beyond the Dutch man’. Charles was enthusiastic about it; on 21st May 1661, on a river journey from Deptford to Temple steps, Pepys notes that he

was overtaken by the King in his barge, he having been down the river with his Yacht this day for pleasure, to try it. And as I hear, Commissioner Petts [sic] doth prove better then [sic] the Duch [sic] one and that that his Brother [the Duke of York, later James II] built.

Again, on 14th September that year he writes

we had great pleasure seeing all four yachts, viz. those two [the Catherine and the Anne] and the two duch [sic] ones[5] .

It would appear that at this time, the Mary’s Captain was one John Goulding. He seems to have been appointed for past services, as the Domestic State Papers for 1662 Feb 27th and March 11th record a warrant

to pay ... the captain of the yacht Mary £500 in lieu of 5000 guilders voluntarily lent by him to the King at Antwerp in 1657 during the time of his necessities[6].

The following year, on 26th May 1663, Pepys records with extraordinary frankness an episode when he had to involve the then Master of the Mary, Captain Jan de Gens, lest in his jealous rage he should lose his self-control at finding his wife, as he supposed, dallying with a certain Mr Pembleton. The Captain had suffered an assault at the hands of one of his crew, and happened to be waiting for Pepys at his office, in order to make complaint. Our last glimpse of the Mary through Pepys’ eyes occurs on 11th August that year when, calm apparently restored to his household, he writes:-

and so we went through bridge and I carried them [his two lady companions, Madam Turner and Mrs Morrice] onboard the King’s pleasure-boat - all the way reading in a book of Receipts of making fine meats ... and so home to bed, my head running upon what to do tomorrow to fit things for my wife’s coming.[7]

In 1666 the Mary was sold to the Royal Navy. Her career thereafter is well documented in State Papers and, as a vignette of the vicissitudes of life in Charles II’s Navy, it is of some interest. Her entire remaining working life was spent on the Chester and Dublin stations, conveying important persons hither and thither on state business. Her new Master was Captain James Sharland. His name first appears in the State Papers on Feb.1 1666 when he writes from Dawport, near Chester, that he has landed Mrs Rachel Alderney and her family safely[8].

By August 7th of that year, a pattern had emerged of a seemingly endless struggle by Sharland to secure spares and stores. Writing from Dublin, he sought permission to purchase two new cables from Liverpool suppliers at a cost of 50 shillings per hundredweight[9]. Six months later, writing again on March 18th 1667 from Dublin to the Navy Commissioners, he complained that although he had some time ago succeeded in persuading the Liverpool chandler William Bushell to supply two excellent cables, he now stood in danger of losing this merchant’s goodwill as the bill for £68 was still unpaid; and now the Mary was in need of a further cable![10]

The matter dragged on into May, with Sharland apparently persuading Bushell once again to supply cables on credit[11]. However, by the end of the month the merchant’s patience was exhausted and Sharland could get no further credit either in Liverpool or Holyhead, from where he wrote to his masters complaining of his inability to obtain either cables or new sails for his vessel[12].

As if this were not enough, Sharland and Captain Hooper of the Harp and their crews had not been paid for many months. At the end of June, from Dublin, they addressed a joint petition to the Navy Commissioners claiming they were owed an astonishing 52 months back pay and asking

that their families may not be starved in the streets and themselves not go like heathen, having nothing to cover their nakedness[13]

By the end of August Bushell had relented so far as to promise cordage and sail on condition that his bill was settled within two months[14]. This letter is interesting for the information it affords about costs; as well as cordage at 52 shillings per hundredweight, sail canvas was one shilling and sixpence per yard. However, the bureaucrats remained intransigent and by late November 1667, Sharland had to beg some odds and ends from Matthew Anderton and Robert Phillpot at Dawpool, Chester, because Bushell had refused point blank to fit him out[15]. Even worse, Sharland now learned that Captain Hooper and the crew of the Harp had been paid £800 while his men were ‘grown very poor and in debt’. Another bitter complaint to the Navy Commissioners followed, but only when the men of the Mary and the Harp decided to send in their tickets were their paymasters finally stirred into action. An urgent letter from purser William Sarsfield to the Earl of Anglesey, Navy Treasurer, notified him of this action and admitted that at least 37 months pay was owed; he ‘would carry what the Earl pleased to send to Ireland; there existed great need’[16].

By mid-March 1668 the immediate crisis was past, though Sarsfield had to keep up the pressure; the men had only received pay at the rate of sixpence per day, while even a sixth-rate warship’s crew got ninepence[17]. All the while, the Mary seems to have crossed and re-crossed the Irish sea, ferrying important people to and from Dublin. On 21st January 1669, Master Anderton notified Secretary Williamson of the safe arrival at Holyhead of no less a figure than the first Sir Winston Churchill, father of the future Duke of Marlborough, victor of Blenheim, in a company of no less than five Commissioners of the Court of Claims, bearing important packets delayed by adverse winds. They must have decided to take the then still quite difficult overland route to London, rather than wait to sail on to Chester[18]. Throughout 1669, the State Papers show a steady procession of prominenti in transit. Still, the undercurrent of difficulties persisted, with Sharland reporting at the end of March that relations had broken down even with Anderton and Philpott, who now joined the Liverpool merchants in refusing him credit because their bills had not been settled[19].

At the end of January 1670, Charles II himself ordered the Mary and Sharland to Portsmouth for a major re-fit. Abraham Ansley reported their arrival off Spithead on Jan 24th[20]. Hugh Salesbury reported to Secretary Williamson[19a] on the 27th

The Mary pleasure boat, long employed on the coast of Ireland, has come to be laid up and reports all quiet there ...[21]

On Feb 1st he wrote again to say that work was in progress[22]. Abraham Ansley reported to the Navy Commissioners on February 8th that he would need 2000 yards of French canvas to equip the Mary and another vessel in dry dock called the Advice[23]. Meanwhile, Sharland sought to ingratiate himself with his masters. Still, it seems a little like twisting the tiger’s tail to write as he did

... the Mary has come in and unrigged, got her necessaries ashore, and the order for fitting her again. I hope I shall be allowed to wait upon you to thank you for supplying me with the necessaries I so often wanted in Ireland [24]

The Mary was re-fitted, apart from rigging and painting, by Feb 19th[25]. After some delay in provisioning, she sailed again for the Irish station on March 17th[26]. By April 6th she was at Chester to convey Lord Berkeley to Dublin[27]. By early 1671 she seems again to have required attention. Sharland wrote to the Navy Commissioners[28] that her plank under water was almost bare. Alas, he had also to take up the old refrain, adding his hope

...that they will speak to Sir Denis Gauden to pay him [Sharland] £204 3s. 4d. Due two years since, for provisions, as the creditors he owes most of it will not believe but that he has had it.

This matter was unresolved in June when Sharland had to write from Dublin asking for additional funds to pay for the Mary’s recent re-caulking.[29] Things seemed to go from bad to worse at the beginning of October when, with the £204 still not yet paid, during passage from Holyhead to Dublin a violent storm in Dublin Bay caused them to have to

let fall our best bower anchor, or else had been blown out to sea. Soon afterwards our cable broke like wood, so the anchor is in danger of being lost unless it can be recovered by sweeping[30].

So now a further £20 had to be asked for to replace the lost anchor and cables. One can only wonder at Sharland’s state of mind as he pleaded in the same letter

I beseech you to speak to Sir D.G to pay the £204 ... now due three years for provisions and most of it owing here [ Dublin]; my creditors are petitioning to have the benefit of law.

Perhaps the Navy Commissioners sensed his plight, for by March 1672 he was able to thank them for the new sails, cordage and cable they have funded. Sir D.G, however, still held out[31]. At this time too, war with the Dutch had broken out and there was fear of privateers operating in the Irish Sea. Sharland seems to have contemplated using the press gang to add to his ship’s complement, both at Chester[32] and Dublin[33].

During August Sharland fell into real trouble. James Leslie, gunner on the Mary, exhibited articles against him, accusing him as follows:-

i) that Sharland exchanged a copper gun weighing 8 cwt, that came from Scotland with the yacht to Sir Roger Mosson,, for a brass gun, weighing 52 cwt to the king’s great damage.
ii) that S. has counterfeited ... the boatswain’s name to several tickets and signed several blanks to his own gain.
iii) that S. has made a practice of entering men in the ship and receiving pay for them after they had run away [instances given].
iv) that S. sold the old cables and rigging to the boatswain and took money from him.
v) that [he] had constantly petitioned the Lord Lieutenant for new ship’s furniture and yet had not laid out 3d on her.

The list continues with several more charges of a similar sort, and culminates in the accusation[34] that

Sharland is a drunken, idle, debauched fellow, who declares that, if he heaves the guns overboard, what is that ?

The real reason for Leslie’s accusations does not emerge, but that there was malice behind them seems clear, as the formal examination of the boatswain William Bromacan offers little support for them[35]. In particular Bromacan deposed that he

never saw the Captain idle, drunk, or debauched, or ever heard anyone say so of him.

It may be that Sharland was not too worried about the outcome, for he was confident enough to write to the Commissioners from Dublin on Sept 6 th asking for £12 to pay for a new ship’s boat, the old one being so decayed as to be unserviceable[36]. Their Lordships also still thought well enough of him to oblige; after being driven by adverse weather to seek shelter in the Isle of Man for three weeks in October, Sharland wrote again on Nov 5th acknowledging funds for the pinnace and dismissing most of his gunner’s charges. He apparently sought to justify himself to Charles II directly, for he writes

Two of [Leslie’s] articles I own but the other 8 I deny, as I have given my answer on oath sent by post to his Royal Highness ... though [Leslie] cannot bring witnesses to justify his false charge, I can bring enough to prove a true one against him [37].

However this may be, the mud seems to have stuck. Sharland’s captaincy of the Mary came to an end rather ignominiously soon afterwards. On Dec 27th 1672 Captain William Burstow succeeded him as captain[38]. Sharland was peremptorily ordered out of the Mary and had to put up a bail bond of £2000 to avoid imprisonment. He demanded a court martial to clear his name[39].

The Mary was ordered to Chatham[40] and her crew was paid off. Leslie maintained his charges against Sharland into March 1673, sending alleged evidence of his former captain’s fraudulent practices to the Commissioners[41]. Little more is heard of the affair in the PRO papers, and the final outcome is unclear. But can anyone fail to sympathise with Sharland after his thankless years in post ? It seems that Charles II himself could not, for he supported Sharland’s application for the post of pilot in Dublin in September 1673, in a personal letter to the Lord Lieutenant[42].

Under her new captain, the Mary appears to have led a quiet life on the Dublin station and little is heard of her until the beginning of 1675 other than an occasional notice of the comings and goings of such distinguished passengers as Lord Ranelagh in December 1674[43]. Even her crew’s 46 months arrears of pay were greatly reduced, although at the end of 1674 they were still unpaid for 16 months service[44].

Her fateful year opened inauspiciously when, in passage for Dublin early in January, westerly gales forced her into Beaumaris with badly shredded mainsails[45]. She made what was to be her final voyage off station early in March, when she was ordered to Dover especially to transport Lord Almoner Howard to Calais[46]. After returning to Dublin, she sailed at once for Chester with a particularly impressive passenger list. She never arrived. Matthew Anderton wrote to Williamson from Chester on March 29th[47].

Last Wednesday the Mary yacht left Dublin for this port with a fair wind, having the Earls of Meath and Ardglas and many others of good note on board, but, by what unhappy accident we know not, she sank. She was about 2 last Thursday morning [25th March, or April 4th by the Gregorian calendar] on the north side of the Skerries, that lie eastward of Holyhead bay. A Welsh vessel saw her under water, but about 40 persons on the Skerries which is an island about a league from shore, some part of which is never overflowed.

The actual circumstances of the loss of the Mary are recorded in a dispatch from John Anderton of the Crown Office in Chester Castle, to the Rt. Hon. Joseph Williamson, Principal Secretary of State[48].

That the Mary yacht is certainly shipwrecked I have from the mouths of two gentlemen that escaped who relate thus. About 2 last Thursday morning [the 25th of March or 4th April Gregorian style], foggy weather, the ship touched on a rock N.W. of the Skerries that lie to the eastward of Holyhead Bay. The seamen and passengers were for the most part snug under decks. The first touch roused the seamen, who cried, all was well but immediately the ship struck on another rock and stuck there. The Skerries is a small isle, an appendage to Anglesea, about a league from shore. The rock on which the ship struck was so near land that, when the sea made her roll, the mast touched land, by which only means those lives were preserved escaped. The Earl of Meath and about 34 more perished, as were Captain Burstow, the boatswain and two more sailors. The master and 23 mariners and 15 passengers got on the isle and so were preserved. Among the 15 were the Earl of Ardgloss and Lord Ardee, son and heir to the Earl of Meath, and now his father’s successor.

The captain bravely went back along the mast to try and save the [2nd] Earl of Meath, only to lose his own life in the attempt. The dispatch goes on

It was noon on Thursday [the 25th] before the mast gave way . The captain to save the Earl of Meath and the rest lost himself. The preserved were on the isle from Thursday morning till Saturday afternoon and had relief by a flask of gunpowder by which they struck fire with a steel and of the wreck boards of the ship made a fire, where they roasted some mutton but had no bread nor any liquor but salt water, till a runlet of usquebaugh [a small cask of whisky] was cast ashore, which they divided proportionate among them. A Wicklow vessel from Beaumaris went as near the isle as she durst and took in the 15 passengers and 24 seamen and landed them Sunday last at Beaumaris.

The sequence of events on 3rd and 4th of April 1675 [March 24th and 25th March old style] has been discussed in detail by specialist experts in ship architecture and the local sailing conditions, notably the late Mr Owain Roberts[49]. He argued that the P.R.O account is a highly telescoped version of events which occurred over several hours. Light winds had delayed the Mary’s passage from Dublin[50] and as noted above, she arrived off Anglesey in darkness and fog. Carried south by a strong ebb tide, she was probably unable to get a bearing on Holyhead mountain before the tide began to flood strongly to the north-east, carrying the Mary towards the Skerries. Mr Roberts argues that she probably first struck on the West Platters, 200 yards S.S.E of the southern tip of the Skerries, and not on a rock N.W. of the islands as the contemporary account states. The prevailing tide and wind would not have allowed any course towards the Skerries from a point to their N.W. The platters dry 6 ft [1.8m] above low water at neap tides, and at the time of the ‘first touch’ would have had about 5ft [1.5m] above their highest point, just enough for a shallow draught vessel like the Mary to be able to scrape over. If Burstow had supposed himself N.W. of the Skerries he might well have steered a more northerly course after this incident, thinking to steer well clear. Instead, within minutes he struck the main islands, running aground in the submerged gulley on the west side of Ynys Arw [see map]. Burstow may for several hours have felt that his ship would re-float, or at least was not in immediate danger. However, Roberts points out that the fact that the Mary did not re-float must mean that her bows were wedged fast above the high-water mark, reducing her overall buoyancy and throwing a great twisting strain on the hull. Probably only her mast, by coming into contact with the rock, prevented her from heeling right over. It is some testimonial to her basic strength that she survived in these straits for some ten hours, giving her passengers and crew a false sense of security which may have encouraged them to come and go, using the mast to reach land. Some may even have remained aboard. This interlude was rudely shattered when the mast suddenly snapped sometime around noon, causing the ship to turn turtle.

When the Mary sank, she still carried some of her original eight ornate bronze guns 5’ 11” [1.8m] in length, cast at Amsterdam in 1660. Each weighing about 600 lb [272.2kg], these guns were found in 1971, together with an anchor, some 100 yds [91.44m] N.E. of the wreck site. From the wreck site two competing groups of divers, the Chorley and Merseyside branches of the British Sub‑Aqua Club, recovered seven identical bronze guns, four of which were found on the first dive, 5’ 6” [1.7m] long with a 3” [8cm] bore, cast in the Tower of London and bearing the cypher of Sir William Compton, Master of the Royal Ordnance from 1660 to 1663.

In the context of shipwreck it may be mentioned that in the aftermath of the wreck of the auxiliary steam clipper Royal Charter in 1859, bodies of the victims were recovered both from the Skerries and from Portferry in Ireland.

It would hardly be possible to give an exhaustive list of vessels which have foundered on or near the Skerries. The fate of the sloop Fame, wrecked here sometime in 1823, is but one of a host of similar forgotten tragedies. Among recorded 19th century sailing shipwrecks, are the Porthmadoc schooner Una lost 28th February 1881 and the Star of Douglas, 14th April 1894. Vessels often fell foul of one or other of the submerged reefs in adjacent waters. One large vessel to suffer thus was the SS Angloman, 4892 tons, which struck the West Platters in the fog on 9th February 1897. All hands were saved by the Holyhead, Cemlyn and Cemaes lifeboats, but her cargo of 700 cattle and 1500 sheep was lost as the vessel sank in 35 feet of water, where she still lies today.[51] She was not the first vessel or the last to strike the Platters. The Porthdinllaen schooner Collina was wrecked there on 8th March 1869, another sailing vessel - the Maggie - foundered on 10th March 1889, and during the Second World War, with the Skerries light extinguished, the 3067 ton Castilian struck the eastern end of this reef on 12th February 1943. All 47 crew members were saved by the Holyhead lifeboat, but the steamer sank in 100 feet of water. She is a dangerous wreck, as her cargo included explosives. Another notorious nearby shoal reef, Coal Rock, was the undoing of the SS Edith Owen on 27th January 1879, the SS Fawn on 14th December 1886, and the SS Lord Athlumney on 4th June 1887 and no doubt there were many others.[52]

As well as being the scene of disaster, the islands were often a haunt of smugglers. Evasion of Customs Duty was commonplace in North Wales in the 18th century. Lewis Morris’s brother William, Holyhead Customs watcher, could lament

I hate all those who cheat our King. [The NW coast of Anglesey] is ‘connected’ to the Isle of Man. There are vessels going and coming as from Chester fair, merchants from there travel through the country to collect orders from gentle folk and common people, and their clerks follow to collect money as do the Chester merchants. A young blue stocking was the [Customs] officer at Cemaes; he was killed by brandy! R.H of Glan yr Afon is in his place; that fellow will not last long either ... Oh conscience, conscience where hast thou gone? [53]

However, smuggling was hardly regarded as a crime at all, by locals of all classes. The diarist Squire William Bulkeley of Brynddu, who was a magistrate at Beaumaris, noted on 21st September 1742 that he had recently

paid a smuggler ... come to Cemaes from the Isle of Man twenty five shillings [£1-25p] for five gallons of French brandy ... right good!

The exploits of Captain William Gambold of His Majesty’s Revenue Cutter Pelham include the occasion early on 12th May 1765 when a vessel was spotted standing in towards land with sails down, only a few leagues from the Skerries. Gambold ordered the Pelham’s boat lowered to go in pursuit, but the smuggler at once hoisted canvas and made off in the direction of the Isle of Man, plying her oars to gain way. A stirring chase followed lasting many hours, with the Pelham and her boat doggedly refusing to abandon their quarry, which was finally boarded and found to contain a full cargo of brandy, wine, tea and tobacco. The crew admitted their intention to land the cargo illicitly that same night. Critical to the ensuing successful prosecution was the fact that the smugglers had been seen within two leagues of the Skerries and its lighthouse, in the approaches to the port of Holyhead, where duty was payable[54].

1 I. W. Jones Shipwrecks of Anglesey David and Charles 1973 p.92
1a Presumably Cornelis Jansz Vlooswjik 1601-87, said to be an 'infamous' Mayor of Amsterdam,
but his name is not on a standard list of C17th mayors in this form.
2 Samuel Pepys Diary Ed. R. Latham and W. Matthews Bell & Hyman London 1983 vol.1 p.222
3 ibid p.287
4 Christopher Pett of Woolwich, who built the yachts Catherine and Anne for the King and his brother James respectively
5 ibid vol.2 p.179; the other Dutch jacht was called the Bezan
6 Calendar of State Papers Domestic Series vol. LI 1662 Feb. 27 p.289, Mar. 11 p.306
7 Pepys loc. cit. vol. 4 p.273
8 Calendar of State Papers Domestic Series vol. cxlvii 1666 Feb. 1; Admiralty Papers
9 ibid vol. clxvi 1666 Aug. 7
10 ibid vol. cxciv 1667 Mar. 7
11 ibid vol. cc 1667 May 15.
12 ibid vol. cci 1667 May 22.
13 ibid vol. ccvii 1667 June 27.
14 ibid vol. ccxiv 1667 Aug. 20.
15 ibid vol. ccxiv 1667 Nov. 18.
16 Dom. Charles II 234 No. 108 Feb. 8 1668
17 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 236 No.185 March 17 1668
18 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 254 No.127 Jan. 21 1669
19 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 258 No.26 Mar. 31 1669
19a Salesbury seems from Pepys' Diary to have been in regular contact with Williamson.
For example, on Feb. 27 1668 he wrote 'Sir Thomas Allin has appeared within sight from the Downs
with 4 ships named .... He met Capt. de la Roche with another French man-of-war and commanded him
aboard where he now remains. He is stayed for having Capt. Wm. Skelton and 200 or 300 English sailors aboard'. Calendar of State Papers 1667-8 p.251
20 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 282 No.52 Jan. 24 1670
21 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 272 No.117 Jan. 27 1670
22 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 272 No.172
23 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 282 No.96 Feb. 8 1670
24 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 282 No.68 Jan. 31 1670
25 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 282 No.133 Feb. 19 1670
26 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 273 Nos.183 Mar. 15, 194 Mar. 17 1670
27 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 274 No.116 April 6 1670
28 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 296 No.100 Feb. 6 1671. Sharland is here referred to as Fras. [Francis] Sharland
29 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 298 No.126 June 17 1671
30 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 300 No.144 October 1671
31 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 323 No.28 Mar. 9 1672
32 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 304 No.164 Mar. 30 1672
33 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 323 No.116 Mar. 30 1672
34 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 328 No.96 Aug. 22 1672
35 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 330 No.7a Nov. 2 1672
36 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 328 No.156 Sept. 6 1672
37 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 330 No.18 Nov. 5 1672
38 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 331 No.167 Dec. 30 1672
39 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 341 No.17 Feb. 4 1673
40 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 331 No.165 Dec. 30 1672
41 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 342 No.68 Mar. ii 1673
42 ibid S.P. Dom. Signet Office, Vol. 9 p.1 Sept. 30 1673
43 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 363 No.4 Dec. 6 1674
44 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 363 No.89 Dec. 19 1674
45 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 367 No.48 Jan. 9 1675
46 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 369 No.57 Mar. 23 1675
47 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 369 Nos.94, 95 Mar. 29 1675
48 ibid S.P. Dom. Ch. II 369 Nos.109, 110 Mar. 31 1675
49 Owain T. P. Roberts ‘ That the Mary yacht is certainly shipwrecked’Cymru a’r Môr No.19 1997-98 pp.50-55
50 D. E. Cartwright Report on tidal conditions at the time of the wreck of the Royal yacht Mary in 1675 Bidston Observatory 1975.
51 I. W. Jones loc. cit. p.105
51a The Lord Athlumley, built 1871 in Scotland by A. & J. Inglis, sank in 1887 on the 4th of June. She was an iron paddle steamer around 230 ft long
and was owned by the Drogheda Steam Packet Co Ltd. She had on board at the time a general cargo, passengers
and cattle. In wind conditions south- force-2 she founderd on Coal Rock, a submerged rocky pinnacle which is just awash at low tide,
around a mile off-shore near the Skerries. She lies from around 6m to 24m on a steep rocky slope, well broken up.
52 All ships lost are as recorded in Ifor W. Jones ibid p.94 and pp.195-206
53 See e.g. Transactions of the Anglesey Antiquarian Society 1914 p.59
54 A. Eames Ships and seamen of Anglesey p.118