This record comprises a documentary reference to a shipping casualty which has been assigned to the maritime named location CARDIGAN BAr pending more information which may allow a more precise location for the loss to be assigned.

Event and Historical Information:
The RAPID was a 48nt wooden ketch built by Laurenny at Pembroke at 1821 (official number 10869). At time of loss on 12 February 1897, the vessel was owned by G Webb of Bridgewater. The ketch had made successfully completed a passage from Dublin to Cardigan carrying a cargo of manure and a returning pilot, when it encountered light airs (south-southwesterly force 1) at the entrance to the River Teifi. It was agreed that the RAPID would be towed up river by the steam trawler LITTLE MALTA, but shortly after being taken in towed the heavy swell caused the hawser to part. The RAPID went aground on the Cardigan Bar. Although a second hawser was attached, the LITTLE MALTA was unable to drag the RAPID clear. The ketch soon became a total wreck with the cargo and stores sold off the next day by William Woodward, the auctioneer.

Sources include:
Board of Trade Wreck Return 1897 Appendix C Table 1 pg139 (577)
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Database 2002
Merchant Navy List 1894 pg627
Troughton, W, 2006, Ceredigion Shipwrecks, pg24

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, September 2010.