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A Smugglers’ Padlock Stayed Locked for 400 Years—and Scientists Just Cracked Its Code

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A Smugglers’ Padlock Stayed Locked for 400 Years—and Scientists Just Cracked Its Code

On the evening of December 28, 1583, the merchant ship Ann Francis was caught in a storm and wrecked near Port Talbot, Wales. The ship carried gold and silver coins, compasses, weapons, and padlocks—including one so well-preserved experts wondered if it could be opened like a regular lock.

In a recent statement, a team of experts from Amgueddfa Cymru–Museum Wales and Cardiff University in the U.K. announced that yes, we in fact can open the padlock the way it was intended. The passcode for the brass lock is “A, N, C, E.” Remarkably, the researchers deduced the code from CT scans of the lock, without damaging the artifact, which dates back to the Elizabethan era. The lock was likely used to secure a small chest protecting items of significant value, as it was found near a collection of Spanish silver coins and two coin weights.

“It took a few attempts, but after a couple days of work we were […] fairly confident that what we had was the correct code,” Alastair Willis, the museum’s senior curator for numismatics and the Welsh economy, said in a behind-the-scenes video on the project. “And as soon as I got that combination—as soon as I had the letters aligned—you could feel it straight away. It was slightly looser.”

According to a blog by Amgueddfa Cymru, there’s surprisingly a lot we know about Ann Francis . ” They were based in King’s Lynn, England, where the Ann Francis was headed after a trip to Spain to sell (smuggle) grain and other goods, although the Shaxtons claimed the ship was returning from Hartlepool.


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