The wreck is reported to lie nearly upside down with the crumpled bows to the north. It lies with its keel roughly aligned 000/180 degrees (north-south) on a sandy seafloor. The wreck appears much collapsed. There are various anomalies to the southeast, north, east, and west which may be debris The propeller has been salvaged. A porthole has been recovered and reported to the Receiver of Wreck.

Event and Historical Information:
The THOR was a small coaster or cargo vessel built in 1937 by N. V. Schpsw., Foxhol. Technical and configuration specifications are given as steel hulled; 133ft 7in long x 24ft 3in breadth x 8ft 7in depth; 1 deck; cruiser stern; machinery aft, by Mtrn. Werke Mannheim A.G; screw propulsion powered by a 4-cylinder oil engine producing 74hp. The coaster was owned at time of loss by D Schothorst and registered at Rotterdam. It was carrying a cargo of coal from Partington to Fremington. The coaster was heading for the shelter of Milford Haven in a SW gale on 18 December 1943, but was overwhelmed 3.5 miles off St Anne's Head and capsized over onto its beam ends. A distress signal brought out the Angle lifeboat under coxswain James Watkins, who picked up two of her crew from the sea, a third man never being found, who presumably drowned. The lifeboat then went alongside the wreck and were able to get two more survivors on board, two others being recovered from the hull of the coaster which by now had completely capsized. Of the ten men on board, three were lost. The coxswain of the Angle lifeboat, James Watkins, received a sliver medal for the rescue. The boat's mechanic, Albert E Rees, received the Thanks of the Institution on vellum. The position for the sinking given by the King's Harbour Master, Pembroke Dock, was bearing 160 degrees, 5.2 cables from Dale Point Flagstaff. A Notice to Mariners was issued (NM 1737/45). The wreck was swept by HMS SCOTT in March 1954. The site was surveyed by Wessex Archaeology during a programme of Cadw-funded marine geophysic in April-May 2010.

Sources include:

Goddard, T, 1983, Pembrokeshire Shipwrecks, p.123
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Database 2002
Lloyd's Register Casualty Returns, 1 October - 31 December 1943, p.6 (b)
Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping, 1 July 1941 -30 June 1942, number 33439 in T
Wessex Archaeology, 2010, Wrecks off the Coast of Wales: Marine Geophysical Surveys and Interpretation, Report Ref: 53111.02-5, pp.40-41

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, June 2012.

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.