Salcombe Cannon Wreck
Marker: recorded wreck position (Date not recorded).
Key facts
| Name | Salcombe Cannon Wreck | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Ship type | archaeological site, shipwreck | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Sea / ocean | English Channel | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | England | official dataset |
| Position | 50.2122, -3.7458 | Historic England Protected Wreck Sites, listed latitude/longitude (OGL v3) |
| Protected Wreck | List entry 1000074 | Historic England |
| Designated | 1997-10-23 | Historic England |
| Restricted area | 19.62 ha | Historic England |
| Grid reference | SX 75531 36147 | Historic England |
About the wreck
The Salcombe Cannon wrecksite is close to two other designated wrecksites in the Erme Estuary which the South West Maritime Archaeological Group (SWMAG) was licensed to investigate. In 1992 this group described the Salcombe Cannon site as:
"A cannon site with nothing else visible".
In 1994, following seabed changes, other artifacts including gold were revealed and the SWMAG began recording the site. Coins and jewellery dating between 1510 and 1636 have been recovered from the site and were purchased by the British Museum in 1998. For two seasons information about the site was initially kept confidential between the Receiver of Wreck, the finders and the Archaeological Diving Unit (working for the Advisory Committee on Historic Wreck). The site was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act in 1997 when news about it was made public. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
Diving & visiting
This is a designated Protected Wreck under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. Under the Act, diving on or otherwise interfering with the wreck inside its restricted area requires a licence; see the Historic England list entry for details.
Location
- Recorded position: 50.2122, -3.7458 (Historic England Protected Wreck Sites, listed latitude/longitude (OGL v3); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: English Channel
- Nearest coast: England
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Salcombe Cannon Wreck (revision 1243334975), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Protected Wreck data © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- Moor Sand site 0 km
- Louis Sheid 1939 · 10 km
- HMS Penylan 1942 · 11 km
- U-1063 1945 · 13 km
- Erme Ingot Site 18 km
- Erme Estuary Wreck 18 km
Browse more: UK & Ireland wrecks · wrecks off England · English Channel