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Experts use CT scans to crack the code on combination padlock from a 400-year-old shipwreck off Wales

The brass combination padlock from the Ann Francis, wrecked off Wales in 1583, whose internal code researchers finally cracked non-destructively using a CT scanner.
The brass combination padlock from the Ann Francis, wrecked off Wales in 1583, whose internal code researchers finally cracked non-destructively using a CT scanner.

Peter Hughes, a 69-year-old metal detectorist from Maesteg, spent 21 years uncovering the Ann Francis hoard from Morfa beach near Port Talbot after a chance find in 1996, then tried for two more decades to open the brass lock himself before enlisting Cardiff University. Dr David Williams used micro-CT scanning — normally reserved for studying bones — to build a 3D image of the internal mechanism and read off the four-letter combination: ANCE.

Hughes said cracking it felt like 'opening the Ark of the Covenant' after 20 years of failed attempts at the dials.

The lock is believed to have secured a captain's chest of Spanish silver coins, high-value textiles or sensitive maritime correspondence lost when the ship ran aground in 1583.

The padlock and other Ann Francis artefacts are on display at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea until September 2027.

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