The wreck lies with its bow on top of the rock/reef and with its keel orientated 000/180 degrees. The stern is in around 25m of water.
Event and Historical Information:
The CYMRIC PRINCE was a steel-hulled steamship built by Short Bros, Sunderland, in 1901 (yard number 298). Technical and configuration specifications are given as 3444gt, 2206nt; 340ft 3in long x 47ft 2in breadth x 26ft 1in depth; 1 deck, 6 bulkhead, passenger deck 31ft, boat deck 132ft, forecastle 38ft; screw propulsion powered by a single steam boiler linked to triple expansion engine made by J. Dickinson & Sons Ltd, Sunderland; official number 109715. The ship had two previous name changes during its service life - ex-KYLENESS, ex-JESSIE BURNS - which included registrations at Glasgow (99 in 1909) and Sunderland (3 in 1901). The vessel was placed on the port of Cardiff Shipping Register on 25 May 1916 with Ernest Lewis Williams named as the ship's manager. At time of loss on 23 February 1917, the vessel was owned by the Anglo-Belgique Shipping Co Ltd. Under the command of master D O Campbell, the CYMRIC PRINCE was on passage from Melilla to West Hartlepool carrying a cargo of iron ore when it encountered fog and stranded on the Belll Rock, near the North Bishop rocks. A request to acquire the salvage rights to the wreck was put forward in 1969.
Sources include:
Board of Trade Wreck Return 1817 Part II, Table A, p.25 (2)
Goddard, T, 1983, Pembrokeshire Shipwrecks, p.104
Haverfordwest and Milford Haven Telegraph, p.4
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Database 2002
Lloyd's Register Casualty Returns, 1 January - 31 March 1917 p.7 (g)
Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping 1 July 1916 - 30 June 1917, number 21 in C
SS Cymric Prince, Wreck Site EU
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, April 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.