This small slate carrying boat or rowed barge has been preserved by the National Museum of Wales and is housed at the Welsh Slate Museum, Llanberis.
The barge/boat measured 20ft in length (6.03m0 and 7ft (2.16m) in breadth. The remains consist of the bottom of the vessel; the majority of the port side frames to their full height; the stem and stern posts; and up to the first strake on the starboard side. Other items recovered from the lake bottom including a heavily encrusted iron rudder fitting. Further examination of this fitting suggested that the barge is likely to have had a lifting rudder which fitted over and slid up and down a square iron bar fixed to the stern. The bottom is made up of seven straight planks nailed directly to eight floors nearly equally spaced from bow to stern (there is no keel). There are eight frames made from grown timbers and fitted as cant frames. The stem has an apron but no supporting knee. The central bottom plank is set into the stem and bolted through. The stern post and stern knee are fastened on top of the central bottom plank. The entire bottom was boarded over. Each side is made up from four planks of equal width clinker fastened with iron nails riveted over square iron roves. The lowest plank in nailed to the bottom plank. The frames are notched so that the planks are fitted exactly against them. The inwale consist of three sections with scarp joints of 200mm in length and nailed. The planks and inwale have capping timbers. A stringer ran the length of the side a little below the inwale. A small thwart rested on the stringer and has a decorative beaded edge. The middle section of the port inwale features the remains of a rowlock.

The barge was carrying a cargo of approximately 1.85 tonnes of slate consisting of 510 slates measuring 20in x 10in (500m x 250mm), 732 slates measuring 16in x 9in (400mm x 220mm) and the broken remains of 112 slates. The slates relate to sizes that became standard from around 1740onwards The 20in x 10in (500m x 250mm)slates were known as `countesses? and the 16in x 9in (400mm x 220mm) slates were known as `ladies?.

Event and Historical Information:
In 197,7 a commercial diving company employed by the Central Electricity Generating Board undertaking a survey of Lake Padarn located the wreck of a small slate carrying barge/boat near Llech y Fulfran (Cormorant Rock). A number of slates were raised for analysis and determined to be 18th century in date. After consultation with the North Wales Quarry Museum and National Museum of Wales, the decision was made to raise both the cargo and the wreck. The recovery took place on 2 January 1978. Research links the vessel with the early history of the Dinorwic Slate Quarry. In 1787, Thomas Wright, Hugh Eliis and William Bridge took over the leases of various small quarry workings around Dinorwic and Allt Wen on the land of Thomas Ashetton Smith. Initially the partners transported their slate by horseback in hampers across the top of Fachwen to Penisarwen and then by cart to Port Dinorwic or Caernarfon. In February 1788, the partners decided to build an incline running for 1.25miles (2km) down the side of Allt Wen from the Allt Ddu quarry to the shore of the lake. The 1788-9 account for the building of the incline includes reference to approximately £50 being spent on the building of boats to take the slate to the company's stockpiles at Cym y Glo. It is likely that the wreck found at Llech y Fulfran is one of these company barges. In 1788, the partners build a new road from Llandeiniolen down to Port Dinorwic to complete the export route. In 1793, barge operations were reported to be successful at keeping the flow of slate to the stockpiles at Cym y Glo and Penllyn. In 1824-5 the landowner Thomas Ashetton Smith (now also directly managing the company) built a horse drawn tramway from the head of the quarry across Bwlch y Fachwen through Clwt-y-bont to Port Dinorwic, and thus the barges became redundant.

Sources include:
Illsley J S and Roberts, O T P, 1979, An 18th century boat in Lake Padarn, North Wales in International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater Exploration (IJNA) 8.1: 45-67

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, December 2008.