by Mark Milburn:
The protected historic wreck site on Loe Bar in Cornwall, left a lot of questions after the first discovery of the site. There were very few artifacts recovered and 17 cannons and one anchor noted. Due to the exposed location and the dangerous shingle beach, plus the fact that it requires a government license to visit the site, activity has been minimal.
I acquired a license to visit the Loe Bar wreck site in 2017. Due to commitments and conditions, I only managed to visit the site in May 2018 for the first time. I had seen the original site plan, which looked interesting with 17 cannons and an anchor. The long walk across the shingle with our dive kit was hard work, especially with the sun blazing down on us. The sea looked clear and inviting with almost no movement. I entered the water with my buddy, archaeologist David Gibbins. We soon came across a very weathered cannon in a gully. We then expanded our search. Each gully eastwards had one or two cannons in it, the last had two cannons at the end of an anchor. It was at this point that we realized that these were not the cannons seen before, the previous survey showed two cannons next to an anchor, this had two cannons at the end of the anchor. Our excitement rose. We started photographing and using GPS to locate the cannons for reference, it was almost a frenzy of activity to record these items before the shingle buried again. After the dive, we plotted the GPS marks against the original survey. These were not part of that data set as we suspected. The new finds help tell the story of the wrecking and the potential location of the, still missing, ten cannons and cargo.
Video: The President Wreck
Article : Shipwreck secrets revealed: Cannons, anchor from treasure-laden wreck discovered