The unmistakable glimmer caught his eye, as a diver sifted through muddy silt on Wales’ northeast coast. About the size of a chicken egg and weighing as much as a pack of cards, the 23-carat gold nugget shone brightly under the Anglesey sun.
But no sooner had the item been keenly plucked from the murky sand, had it automatically gained a new custodian more than 300 miles away in Southampton – the Receiver of Wreck.
First defined in the Merchant Shipping Act 1854, the Receiver of Wreck works for the Admiralty and the British Crown. However, its origins can be traced far earlier, to a time when pirates, smugglers and looters jostled to keep plunder secret and hidden from the law.
As early as the 12th century, wreck and salvage laws allowed for the legal recovery of wreck materials. During King Edward II’s reign in 1322, a Royal Fish Prerogative came into effect, which established the monarch’s ownership of “wreck of the sea”, which included whales and sturgeon – and later, porpoises and dolphins.
Since the number of vessels in UK waters has grown, so too has the unfortunate number of shipwrecks. It’s currently thought that around 37,000 vessel wrecks lie on the seabed, with more than 200 now being designated protected sites – numbers that consistently change over time.
Since 1993, the duties of the Receiver of Wreck have been assumed by a single civil servant with HM Coastguard, ably assisted by a team of deputies at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).
Former Police Detective Steve White began working at the MCA as an Investigator in November 2023, before being appointed to the Receiver of Wreck by the Secretary of State in 2024.
It’s a unique role that has historically held interesting statutory powers, including indemnity from prosecution and the right to bear arms to ‘kill, maim or hurt’ anyone who obstructs their duties. In 1926, the Receiver was instructed only to ‘shoot over the heads’ of opportunist looters.
“It’s certainly not something I’d consider, in any case!” says Steve, of the role’s more curious allowances, which have also included the right to commandeer a vehicle in the line of public duty.
Nevertheless, members of the public will be pleased to know that through the Merchant Shipping Act in 1995, the Receiver’s role and duties were more formally detailed as responding to wreck incidents, managing wrecks and salvage, returning property to owners, administering salvage awards, investigating salvage crime, monitoring dangerous wrecks, and administrating Royal Fish.
In the proceeding years, these responsibilities have been included immense administrative requirements like a large salvage operation on the South coast in 2007, and the ongoing needs of dangerous military shipwrecks in the Thames estuary.
The team are also responsible for marking and guiding exclusion zones for the SS Richard Montgomery, a wrecked US cargo ship carrying dangerous cargo, including ordnance and munitions. They commission and oversee scans of the site to determine any deterioration and any potential dangers to people or marine environments.
Steve’s team has had the pleasure of examining several unique items recovered from the 11,000 square miles of UK coastline, including Britain’s biggest-ever recorded gold nugget in 2016.
“The Receiver of Wreck has the privilege of handling and examining a range of invaluable artefacts that are found in UK waters. We’ve seen everything from war-era U-Boat propellers, 16th century Spanish coins and even a floating hot tub!”, he says.
“Salvors, or those who find wreck materials come under our supervision while we investigate ownership. It often surprises people to know that materials from ships that wrecked over 150 years ago may, through various company acquisitions, have a modern owner.
“A vessel’s hull and cargo can also have different owners, which can add another layer of investigation to proceedings. Awards made to salvors can range anywhere from £1 to over £10million, depending on the competency of the salvor and the value of the materials recovered.”
However, failure to report items that have come from a wreck within UK waters can result in prosecution. Unfortunately, unique and delicate items are too often found in the hands of hobbyists and amateurs, who have neither the expertise nor the means to safely maintain these invaluable antiquities.
“Once items leave a hydrated saltwater environment and they’ve not been properly conserved and maintained, items deteriorate rapidly. It’s vital that within 28 days, people report to us any items they suspect are from a wreck,” says Steve.
However, the Receiver of Wreck remains in praise of diving communities who, in large number, understand the importance of conservation. Through technological advances and the growing availability of high-quality scanning equipment, popular ‘adopt a wreck’ schemes now help the public to explore and document wrecks like never before without leaving a trace.
“Among our team’s varied work, the reuniting of owners with their former possessions is perhaps most rewarding,” says Steve's colleague Kate Rogers, Deputy Receiver of Wreck.
“We facilitated the US Navy to recover a ship’s bell from the wreck of the USS Jacob Jones, now housed in Washington DC to commemorate the fallen, and in 2022, we repatriated a brass fuse box plate to the Royal Canadian Navy. The artefact came from the wreck of HMCS Regina, which was sunk off the Cornish coast by a German U-Boat in 1944.”
The Receiver of Wreck is also responsible for stranded Royal Fishes that wash up on beaches in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Whales, porpoises, sturgeon, and dolphin are among the cetaceans notifiable to the monarch via The Privy Council. With some of these becoming increasingly rare, the Receiver’s data is often useful to organisations and governmental bodies that focus on the wider marine ecosystem.
“I’m a non-archaeologist, and being an investigator by training, the role is fascinating," says Steve. "I’ve had to immerse myself within it, and it hasn’t let me down! Despite the Receiver’s historical basis, new technologies and advances mean that wreck and artefact analysis has become even more interesting and exciting.”
But for all the plunder found across the UK’s 7,000 miles of coastline, there’s a find perhaps much closer to home that’s yet to be discovered by Steve and his team: “A long time ago, the Receiver’s very own sword was lost... It’s something I’d love to find!”
