The wreck is reported to be well-broken up after being salvaged in the later 1940s. The propeller is reported to lie flat on the seabed next the prop shaft. The rudder still stands some 2m in height. However, the ship's boilers form the highest part of the wreck at 5.1m. The westerly swell running over the site has caused a gradually migration of wreckage into Porth Llauog. A copper pin and two copper drawer knobs have been recovered and reported to the Receiver of Wreck

Event and Historical Information:
The SZENT ISTVAN was a steel-hulled steamship built by Wigham Richardson & Co, Newcastle Upon Tyne, in 1892. Technical and configuration specifications are given as 2215gt, 1376nt; 285ft long x 38ft 2in breadth x 23ft 2in depth; 2 decks, 5 bulkheads, passenger deck 30ft, boat deck 69ft, forecastle 33ft; screw propulsion powered by two steam boilers linked to a triple expansion engine producing 237hp. The vessel was owned at time of loss by the Royal Hungarian Sea Navigation Co Ltd, and was registered at Fiume. The steamship was on passage from Oporto to Glasgow when it is variously reported as having been lost on the west side of Ramsey Island, or offshore in a SW direction, she ran ashore in fog and was abandoned. Her crew of twenty-six reached Ramsey Island in their own boat where they were looked after by an inhabitant, who later assisted them to reach the mainland.

Sources include:
BSAC Wreck Register, Addendum 2 to Vol 1 and 3, 52 (295)
Evening Express, 30 September 1908, p.3
Goddard, T, 1993, Pembrokeshire Shipwrecks, p.70
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Database 2002
Lloyd's Register Casualty Returns, 1 July - 30 September 1908, p.7 (h)
Receiver of Wreck Droits Database 2007 RCIM6/2/5
UK Hydrographic Office Wrecks and Obstructions Database. ? Crown Copyright and database rights. Reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office and the UK Hydrographic Office (www.ukho.gov.uk).
 

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, March 2008.

This record was enhanced in 2020 with funding from Lloyd's Register Foundation as part of the project ‘Making the Link: Lloyd's Register and the National Monuments Record of Wales’. Visit Lloyd’s Register Foundation Heritage and Education Centre for more resources.