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# Brass combination lock from the Anne Francis, wrecked in 1583, raised off Wales and its code read by scanning
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/u-poberezhia-uelsa-so-dna-moria-podniali-latunnyi-kodovyi-zamok-xvi-veka-kotoryi-lezhal-na-meste-krusheniia-angliiskogo-torgovogo-sudna-enn-frensis-zatonuvshego-vo-vremia-shtorma-v-1583/
- Published: 2026-11-06T20:39:04.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-06T20:50:12.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archaeology, Museums, Science

Off the coast of Wales, a sixteenth-century brass combination lock has been lifted from the seabed at the wreck site of the English merchant ship Anne Francis, which went down in a storm in 1583.

Spanish silver coins were found beside the lock, which is why the researchers believe it secured a small chest holding those coins or other valuables. The chest itself has not survived.

There was no need to guess the code blindly. David Williams of Cardiff University, together with staff of the National Museum Wales, scanned the lock with a micro-tomograph and obtained a detailed three-dimensional model of the mechanism. The model showed how the notches line up with the letters, and in this way the four-letter combination was recovered: ANCE