The Wreck of the Helvetia (AW1804b)
©Paul Edwards 2018
The Helvetia was forced ashore and abandoned with its cargo of timber in a storm in 1887. This photo was taken on 27th April 2018 at NGR SS4137988586. I'd wanted an image of this wreck since I started photographing Gower, having seen a painting of it by my father in the 1970s, but I never seemed to time it right. I wasn't confident on this occasion either and was more interested in the clams that were all around the wreck, so about half an hour before sunset I abandoned the photography and ran back to the car for a bag to collect some of the clams. While collecting the clams I noticed the sun setting behind the "eye of the dragon", so I couldn't resist this image. I didn't rate it at the time, but it turned out to be my most popular image on Twitter. The clams turned out to be full of sand and virtually inedible. Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens at 14mm with 0.9 soft graduated filter, Manfrotto tripod. Exposure F11 at 0.4 sec.