The Penrhos was built for the Stanley Steamship Company and was originally named after the Company as The Stanley. She was built by W.J.Yarwood at Northwich in 1904 at the head of the Weaver Navigation, the latter being well inland. To the present day, coasters still use the Weaver Navigation although shipbuilding has now ceased.

The Stanley Steamship Company was taken over by Steam Coasters Limited, who in turn, became the Straits Steamship Company. It was this company that changed her name to The Penrhos.

She had a displacement of some 187 tons, her length totalled approximately 30 metres with a beam of 7 metres and a draught of 3 metres. The engine was obviously driven by steam and was of the compound variety consisting of two cylinders.

On 1st. January 1942, The Penrhos was on a passage from Penmaenmawr in North Wales to Liverpool with a cargo of limestone chippings. Her journey as far as Great Ormes Head had been uneventful, but somewhere after that it is believed that she hit a mine and sank, taking her crew of four with her. The listed position of the wreck is one mile from the North Constable buoy at 243º.

The wreck of this coaster lies upright sticking out of the sandy seabed at 14 metres low water. Her bows are facing to the North and stern to the South. The current has scoured deeply around the bows and stern. Amidships her gunwales are almost level with the sandy seabed. She lies reasonably intact and doesn’t appear to show any sign of damage that would have been caused by hitting a mine.

The anchor winch and the loading winch are forward of the forecastle one on each side. Las, the forecastle has taken a bit of a battering. She has a single hold, which is now full of sand carried there effortlessly by the tides. Her rear deck house is still in place and you can swim through it quite easily. Below you can be seen the single boiler. On her rear deck house roof there appears to be part of a gun mounting. Over the stern, her propellor and rudder are all but buried in the sand.

An unusually strange puzzle has come to light over recent years. Following the recovery of a bell from this wreck by divers, subsequently cleaned up, it carried the the legend “Island Queen 1916”. The Island Queen was a 803 ton steamer with two boilers. (The Penrhos only had one). She was owned by the Limmerick Steamship Company and was renamed The Foynes in 1920. The Foynes is listed as being sunk in Valencia Harbour in Spain by aircraft on 27th. January 1939. How did the bell from the Foynes get reused as the ships bell on The Penrhos? It is very difficult to imagine.