The President (1684)
The President (1684)
The President was a homeward-bound English East Indiaman in 1684 that had an arduous voyage up the west coast of Africa and was then wrecked on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall with only two survivors – men who clung to a cleft in the cliff overnight before being rescued, and whose account was the basis for a pamphlet that told of her horrifying final journey. Their description, and the location of the wreck on a contemporary chart of west Cornwall, led divers to suspect that they had found the site when guns and an anchor were discovered in shallow water just south of Loe Bar in the 1990s. Research in the East India Company records suggested that the ship might have been carrying diamonds, but none were discovered when the site was investigated by a team in 1999 and plans for further work were abandoned. The wreck was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973.
After years when the site had not been seen I relocated it by snorkelling in 2018 and since then have dived on it more than 25 times, including dives with Mark Milburn and Ben Dunstan. We are licensed by Historic England to dive on the site under the provisions of the 1973 Act. Our work has resulted in 15 very worn guns and one anchor of late 17th century type being identified and recorded. The wreck is in an extremely high energy environment less than 8 metres deep where for much of the year the swell and wave oscillation sweep the seabed, moving the anchor and several of the guns up to three or four metres over the course of a year.
Our most amazing find has not been underwater but in a manor house nearby – the ship’s bell, salvaged at the time and hung in a belfry. Through the generosity of the owners I was able to record the bell and write the report linked opposite, including a detailed account of the final voyage and sinking and of the guns and anchor. The bell is one of the outstanding artefacts from a shipwreck in Cornwall, and the finest bell to have survived from an English East Indiaman.
Click on the images to enlarge. The first photos show how much the anchor and nearby guns have moved over four years, comparing especially May 2019 and July 2021. The other photos show how the appearance of the guns changes seasonally. These are all 4 or 6 pounders.
