The remains of a very large wooden ship are regularly exposed on Cefn Sidan Sands, around 1400m along the beach, to the north-west of Car Park 1. The vessel is generally orientated SW-NE with the bow to the north-east. Several lines of timbers are visible, suggesting it has heeled over to starboard as it has become buried in the sand, or that the starboard side has sheered from the lower part of the hull and then settled into the sand. Extant remains are visible over a length of at least 52m (170ft), with further material likely to be buried. The visible remains are 13m wide, although this may not be indicative of the width of the original vessel due to site-formation processes post-wrecking. However, taken together, these dimensions indicate the presence of a very large ship, by wooden shipbuilding standards.

The site was visited by the RCAHMW on 21/02/2023 and recorded via photogrammetry. The resulting survey can be viewed here

Cymraeg: https://skfb.ly/oEQKz

English: https://skfb.ly/oEBvt

Event and Historical Information:
The wreck was first recorded from aerial photographs in 1994. It was subsequently recorded by Malvern Archaeological Diving Unit in the mid-1990s (Turner & Cundy 1996), and by Cambria Archaeology (Page, 1997: 5-6) as part of wider wreck recording on Cefn Sidan Sands (DAT HER 56958).

The identification of the wreck is currently unconfirmed. Suggested candidates (see Bennett - 'Brothers') include the brigantine MARIE THERESE (NPRN 274120) lost in 1907 and the barque BROTHERS (NPRN 273864) lost in 1833. Both of these ships are too small to be plausible candidates for the wreck. The MARIE THERESE is listed within the Lloyds Register (1906-7, M-370) with a gross tonnage of 209 and an overall length of 90.9ft, the latter being far too short for the archaeological remains present on the beach. The overall dimensions for BROTHERS are not known and are not listed in the Lloyds Register (1832-33, B-645), but its tonnage of 350 is given. Under the tonnage calculations in use at that time, a vessel of 350 tons is likely to have had a length of around 30m and a beam (width) of around 8m, considerably smaller than the archaeological remains present on the beach. For comparison, the tonnage of a 52m long ship, with an expected breadth of around 12m (based on a length:beam ratio of 4:1) would be around 1400 tons, using the calculation method in use at the time of the loss of the BROTHERS.

Another candidate loss for the wreck, identified through RCAHMW research, is the wooden full-rigged ship AUSTRALIA (NPRN 273676) lost on Cefn Sidan Sands in 1901 and assigned the same general loss location as BROTHERS. The AUSTRALIA's dimensions as listed by the Lloyds Register (1900-1901 A1298) are a length of  201.4ft (61.4m), breadth 39.6ft (12m), depth (of hold) 23.2ft (7m), and gross tonnage of 1331. The ship is also noted as having a single deck, two transverse bulkheads and having been sheathed with felt and yellow-metal in September 1898. The AUSTRALIA was built in 1875 by A. Roy at Maitland in Nova Scotia and was originally named WILLIAM DOUGLAS. The dimensions and place of loss of the AUSTRALIA allow a strong correlation with the archaeological remains present on the beach to be made, pending further research. No other similarily sized wooden ships are known to have been lost in the area.

Sources include:

Bennett, T., Wrecks on Welsh Beaches: 'Brothers'.

Countryside Council for Wales database, reference 8.59.1 28

Dyfed Archaeological Trust HER PRN 30088: https://archwilio.org.uk/her/chi3/report/page.php?watprn=DAT30088

Dyfed Archaeological Trust HER PRN 56958: https://archwilio.org.uk/her/chi3/report/page.php?watprn=DAT56958 

Lloyds Register, 1832-33 (shipowners). B-645 https://archive.org/details/HECROS1833S/page/n101/mode/2up

Lloyds Register, 1900-1901 (Sailing). A-1298 https://archive.org/details/HECROS1901SV/page/n85/mode/2up

Lloyds Register, 1906-7. M-370 https://archive.org/details/HECROS1907SV/page/n255/mode/2up

Page, N. 1997. Cefn Sidan Wreck Recording Project. Cambria Archaeology Project No. 56958. Access via https://archwilio.org.uk/her/chi3/report/page.php?watprn=DAT56958 

Turner, W. & Cundy, I., 1996. Hulk Survey at Kidwelly, Dyfed, South Wales. MADU.

UKHO ID 12385: Contains public sector information, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0, from UK Hydrographic Office.

J. Whitewright, RCAHMW, April 2023