Overview
- Researchers announced Wednesday that a team from Amgueddfa Cymru and Cardiff University used micro‑CT scans to create a detailed 3‑D image of the padlock’s internal mechanism and identified the correct four‑letter combination, ANCE.
- The brass lock came from the Ann Francis, an Elizabethan merchant ship wrecked off Margam beach in 1583, and it was recovered as part of a hoard found by metal detectorist Peter Hughes between 1996 and 2017.
- When opened, the lock revealed a removable end slab and a small key‑like component, confirming how the ring notches align with letters on the device and explaining why manual attempts over two decades failed.
- Finder Peter Hughes described the outcome as emotional closure after about 20 years of trying to open the lock, and the artefact is now on public display at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea through September 2027.
- The project repurposed medical/industrial micro‑CT technology for conservation work, showing a repeatable, non‑destructive method that could help researchers examine other sealed metal artefacts and refine interpretations of what such locks once protected.