‘Welsh’ wreck discovered in hunt for plane
ASEARCH for a missing Malaysian plane could have uncovered an ancient Welsh shipwreck.
Two shipwrecks have been found more than 1,000 miles off the coast of Australia in efforts to find Malaysia Airlines plane MH370.
On March 8, 2014, the plane, carrying 239 passengers, vanished midflight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Since then the mystery has been investigated by authorities from Malaysia, Australia and China, with no results.
As part of a failed search in 2015, researchers discovered the wrecks of two vessels in the Indian Ocean through sonar images.
It is now thought the ships were merchant vessels from the 19th century, with one believed to be from Wales.
Speaking to the BBC, Dr Ross Anderson, curator of maritime archaeology from the Western Australian Museum, said a boat with a wooden hull could have originated from Wales.
On February 21, 1882, merchant ship the Magdala set sail from Penarth carrying coal.
But en route to the Indonesian island of Ternate Moluccas, the ship, led by a Captain Nelson, was sunk, likely as a result of a “catastrophic explosion”.
In an 1882 report in the South Wales Daily News newspaper the ship is mentioned as one of two missing vessels from south Wales.
The article, dated November 3, 1882, said: “The undermentioned vessels, which have previously been referred to as overdue, were on Wednesday posted at Lloyd’s as missing.
“The Magdala, Captain Nelson, official No. 58,712 which sailed from Penarth for Ternate Moluccas, laden with coals, on February 21.
“The Clematis, Captain Perrier, which sailed from Swansea for Bayonne, with coals, on August 13.”
It is thought the ship was likely to have had a crew of between 15 and 30 men but they cannot be identified due to a lack of historical records.
The wreck could also be a ship called the W Gordon, which was heading from Scotland to Australia in 1877.
Dr Anderson said: “The evidence points to the ship sinking as a result of a catastrophic event such as explosion, which was common in the transport of coal cargoes.”
As part of the aeroplane search a second shipwreck found 2,300km from the coast of west Australia has been identified as an iron baroque vessel.
It is thought to be one of three possible ships: The West Ridge, lost in 1993, Kooringa, lost in 1894, or Lake Ontario, lost in 1897.
On January 17, 2017, searches for the MH370 were officially stopped.
A total of 33 pieces of wreckage have been uncovered during investigations in the Indian Ocean.