The remains of the CITY OF OTTAWA are located on the foreshore on the eastern side of the Foryd Harbour, Rhyl, between the Pont y Ddraig and A548 bridges, to the northeast of the Foryd car park. The wreck was recorded in February 2023 as part of mitigation work for Marine License DML 2164 when it was found to be substantially buried by sediments with only a small number of frame-ends exposed above the mud (Hughes, 2023) at the southern end of the wreck. This is in contrast to previous decades when substantial and significant parts of the ship were readily visible over a length of c. 45m.
The location and dimensions of the wreck correspond with UKHO ID 8241 which was recorded from aerial photographs in 1989 and noted as being orientated 030/210 degrees, with a length of 44m. This was previously assigned a different NMRW record (NPRN 506949), but the two records have since been amalgamated, in recognition that they are referring to the same wreck material, and NPRN 506494 has been cancelled.
Event and Historical Information:
The CITY OF OTTAWA was a wooden 3-masted full-rigged ship built in 1860 in Quebec by Jean Elie Gingras (Official No. 36640). The ship was by named to celebrate Queen Victoria's choice of a new Canadian capital three years earlier. It was 884 tons, with registered dimensions (Lloyds Register 1890) of 169.7ft length, 33ft breadth and 21.3ft depth. The vessel was typical of many Candian-built wooden ships in the mid/late 19th century in that its first voyage was across the Atlantic to the UK to be sold. The Lloyds Register entry for 1861 records that the ship was sheathed with felt and yellow-metal (brass) and partly fastened with iron bolts. Samuel notes (2018: 10) that the hull sheathing took place once the ship arrived in Liverpool from Quebec. In the 1861 Lloyds Register the ship was registered in Liverpool, owned by Dowie and Co. and had a listed voyage as Liverpool to India.
The CITY OF OTTAWA's working career between 1860 and 1890 was global in nature, taking in ports in Britain, France, Italy, Canada, the USA, Brazil, Yemen, Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar and Australia. However, many of the voyages revolved around the outward shipment of coal from the ports of Cardiff and Greenock, and the inward supply of timber from Quebec in particular, as well as Myanmar and the USA. From 1863 the vessel was registered at Plymouth following its sale to Thomas Restarick and his son. A further sale to John Porter Rogers of Fenchurh Street followd in July 1873, although the registration remained at Plymouth. A detailed historical account of the ship's life is provided by Judith Samuel (2018).
On 20 July 1890 the CITY OF OTTAWA had loaded coal in Cardiff and sailed for Quebec. It only got as far as Milford Haven and was subsequently moored at Hazelbeach near Neyland until being sold to the War Office for £300 in January 1896 for use as a storeship. The ship was finally disposed of by the War Office in 1906, when it was sold to Robert Jones and Co. of Rhyl for breaking-up. After which the vessel reached its current location within Rhyl Harbour.
In January 2007, Denbighshire Council began a major regeneration programme for the waterfront at Rhyl including a new road constructed from in front of the May Quay public house to the former timber yard, repairs to the timber yard quay wall, the creation of a secure boat storage area with wash-down facilities and a new cycle route link. In May 2007, the Council requested the removal of four sunken vessels to facilitate dredging and the development of the marina. Subsequently an initiative was launched, eventually coming to nothing, to recover part of the vessel, possibly consisting of up to 200 tons of timber, for a display in the Quebec City Hall. In November 2007, Denbighshire Council began a feasibility study to assess the desirability of preserve all or part of the wreck. In February 2008, a news item revealed that £50,000 of European funding may have been withdrawn because of delays in developing a feasible plan for recovering part of the wreck. Work to the harbour was eventually completed with the wrecks of the CITY OF OTTAWA and the ALICE (NPRN 443) being left in place. The remains of the CITY OF OTTAWA have undergone a period of continued reburial since the new harbour wall was built, and at the time of a detailed survey in 2023 (Hughes, 2023), were almost entirely buried.
Sources include:
Daily Post, 29 October 1992
Daily Post, 21 February 2008, pg 8
HENEB Clwyd Powys Historic Environment Record PRN 34275, https://archwilio.org.uk/her/chi3/report/page.php?watprn=CPAT34275
Hughes, M., 2023. Rhyl Harbour: Pre-dredging Survey and monitoring. York Archaeology YA/2023/074, Marine Licence DML 2164.
Lloyds Register of Shipping, 1861, C499 https://archive.org/details/HECROS1861/page/n275/mode/2up
Lloyds Register of Shipping, 1890, No.1126 https://archive.org/details/HECROS1890/page/n205/mode/2up
Receiver of Wreck Droits letter and printout June 2001 RCIM6/2/5/5
Samuel, J., 2018. The City of Ottawa. The story of a sailing ship. Rhyl: Penlan Publishing.
UKHO ID 8241: Contains public sector information, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0, from UK Hydrographic Office.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/6611359.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/7101697.stm
J. Whitewright, RCAHMW, June 2025.