1. Archaeological remains associated with the loss of this vessel are not confirmed as present at this location, but may be in the vicinity.
Event and Historical Information
The HORATIO was a wooden, full-rigged ship built in 1800 at Liverpool. The ship's first Port of Liverpool Shipping Register entry gives the technical and configuration specifications as 2 masts, 3 decks, length 96ft 9/12th, breadth 26ft 4/12th in, height between decks 5ft 8/12th, 292 tons burthen. HORATIO had sailed on her maiden voyage (Capt John Watson) in 1801 to the Gold Coast to pick up 303 slaves, of which 272 were dually disembarked in Kingston Jamaica. Other voyages followed - 1802 (270 slaves), 1804 (114 slaves), and 1805 (274 slaves). The owner for these voyages was John Bolton of Liverpool, who was a leading West India merchant (i.e. slaves and the goods they produced - sugar, rum, and cotton).
Around 1809, HORATIO was sold to Thomas Case & Co, another major figure in Liverpool's Africa trade. Technical specifications noted in Lloyds Register entries are given as 280 tons, sheathed in copper, new bottom and large repairs in around 1809 when draught was increased from 8ft to 12ft. The master at time of loss was Alexander Hannay, brother to John Bean Hannay, who achieved notoriety by being the first case brought under the new Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807. The famous barrister, Sir William Garrow, lead the prosecution for 4 counts of transporting 22 slaves from Calabar resulting in a sentence of 7 years transportation. In the same month as this sentence was handed down, John Bean Hannay's brother Alexander, in charge of a former slave ship, would be wrecked at Dinas Dinlle (on 5 February 1817). Only two out of the 26 people onboard were saved. The 1817 parish burial register for Llandwrog includes an entry for the 9 February - 'Thirteen men and one female being part of the crew of the ship Horatio bound from Trinidad to Liverpool and stranded under Dinas Dinlle'.
The wrecking was cited by Henry Trengrouse in his treatise to gain support for rocket lifesaving apparatus - 'HORATIO, from Trinidad to Liverpool, came ashore about five o'clock in the morning, on a fine sandy beach: and while the stiffness of the shore allowed her to come in very close, it necessarily promoted heavy breakers, which beat over her with violence. On grounding, she broached to, and heeled inwards; where her mizen mast soon went over the side, which was shortly after followed by others. The people were clinging by the wreck, eagerly expressing their desires to have help; but the spectators, (who had assembled in great numbers) could not afford any. Unfortunately, she came ashore at the most unpropitious state of the tide, it having just begun to flow, which made her cry and creak a good deal, and she soon began to break up...'
A year later, on 28 February 1818, Henry Trengrouse's rocket apparatus was presented to Admiral Sir Charles Rowley. The Committee appointed to look further into invention soon reported `that Mr. Trengrouse's mode appears to be the best that has been suggested for the purpose of saving lives from shipwreck by gaining a communication with the shore; and, so far as the experiments went, it most perfectly answered what was proposed...?
Sources include:
Historical research undertaken by Rhys Mwyn (Archaeologist), Emrys W. Jones (Caernarvon Pilot) and Alun Lewis Jones (Shipwright), February-May 2016 in relation to a wreck which uncovered near Dinas Dinlle in February 2016 (see NPRN 271408)
Hostettler, J and Braby, R, 2009, Sir William Garrow; His Life, Times and Fight for Justice, pg117-8
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Database 2002
Lloyds List, 7 February 1817, no. 5150
Lloyds Register of British and Foreign Shipping, 1 July 1807 - 30 June 1808, number 765 in H
Lloyds Register of British and Foreign Shipping, 1 July 1808 - 30 June 1809, number 878 in H
Lloyds Register of British and Foreign Shipping, 1 July 1816 - 30 June 1817, number 391 in H
North Wales Gazette 20 February 1817
Port of Liverpool Shipping Register, 201 in 1800 (6 October 1800)
Trengrouse, Henry, 1817, Shipwreck Investigated for the cause of the great loss of lives which is frequently attended; and a remedy provided in a portable and practicable apparatus? (google books)
Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, May 2016.
2. EU-funded CHERISH project (RCAHMW) coastal monitoring visits to this area between 2017 and 2021 observed and photographed 2 sets of timber remains, thought to be wreck sites. As a result 2 site records NPRN 800035 and 800036 were created. There is potential that HORATIO may be associated with these remains.
Louise Barker, CHERISH Project RCAHMW, May 2020.
CHERISH (Climate, Heritage and Environments of Reefs, Islands and Headlands) is an EU-funded Wales-Ireland project (2017-2023) led by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, in partnership with the Discovery Programme: Centre for Archaeology and Innovation Ireland, Aberystwyth University: Department of Geography and Earth Sciences and Geological Survey, Ireland. https://cherishproject.eu/en/