A CT scanner read the four-letter code on a 1583 shipwreck padlock

Engineers have read the combination on a brass padlock that came ashore with a 16th-century shipwreck. BBC Wales reported on November 3, 2026, and updated the story the next day, that the code is A-N-C-E. Peter Hughes, of Maesteg, found the lock in 1999 while detecting on Morfa beach near Margam, in Port Talbot, among Spanish silver coins from the Ann Francis. The ship was wrecked in a storm on December 28, 1583, on the way back from Spain. He tried the dials for about 20 years.

Dr David Williams, a research associate at Cardiff University's School of Engineering, used micro CT scanning, the sort of scan a hospital uses, scaled to a small object. A first scan showed letters. A second failed. A third showed the code. Senior curator Alastair Willis at Amgueddfa Cymru said four rings with six letters each make 1,296 combinations, and letters on the ends do not move and seem meant to mislead. Hughes gave the hoard to the museum in 2017. The lock has been on display at Swansea Waterfront Museum since July 2026.

Curator Siân Iles said the lock is in excellent condition and was probably for a small chest or box. What that box held is not known. The news is the combination and a lock that still works as it did. It is not a list of the cargo that was lost.