Diamond (ship)

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The Diamond was a three masted square rigger. She was one of the first ships to operate a regular service for passenger and cargo between Britain and the Americas. She was built in New York in 1823 and was one of the first American ships to be built with a composite (wood and iron) hull. She sank en-route to Liverpool from Quebec on January 2, 1825 in Cardigan Bay. The wrecksite was discovered in 2000 and was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 on April 2, 2002; the first such designation to be made by the National Assembly of Wales.

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[edit] Construction and sailing life

When the Diamond was built in 1823, shipbuilding was at a time of rapid technological change. New materials and shipbuilding techniques were being used and ships of this period show many variations. The Diamond is thought to be the oldest known example of a composite American hull, where a timber frame and plank construction is reinforced with iron frames. The hull was also sheathed in copper - to protect the timber planking from attack by marine organisms and reduce drag.

At 120ft 9ins long, she was the forerunner of the Ocean liners that would later regularly cross the Atlantic throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

[edit] Wrecking, discovery and protection

The Diamond sailed from Quebec on December 12, 1824, captained by Henry Lacy. She was bound for Liverpool with about 30 passengers and a cargo of cotton. On January 2, 1825, she struck a notorious reef, the Causeway, in Cardigan Bay and sank in 7 fathoms. A handful of the passengers were saved.

In 2000, two local divers, Tony Iles and his daughter Helen, found the wreck through magnetometer survey. On diving the site, they found wooden frames reinforced with iron. They conducted a preliminary survey and reported the find to Cadw. The wrecksite was then investigated by the Archaeological Diving Unit, in support of the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973, using side-scan sonar and ROV, who concluded that the wreck was that of an early composite hulled vessel, probably the Diamond. As a result, the wreck site was designated on April 2, 2002; the first designation in Wales since powers were devolved to the National Assembly of Wales and hence the first designation by a Welsh statutory instrument.

[edit] Further investigation

Ian Cundy of the Malvern Archaeological Diving Unit was granted a licence to investigate the wrecksite in July 2002. His findings cast doubt on whether the designated wrecksite is that of the Diamond or is that of a larger and later (unidentified) vessel. The wreck appears to be about 160ft long and there are discrepancies between samples of the materials (timber and hull sheathing) recovered from the site and those listed as used in the Diamond. Samples stamped Muntz Metals are scattered on the site, and these were not patented until 1832, several years after the loss of the Diamond. Cardigan Bay has been the graveyard of so many ships that identifying possible other candidates for the designated wrecksite, and excluding the rest may take some time.

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