Devon historic shipwrecks given protection
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Three of Devon’s historic wrecks have been designated as scheduled monuments.[![The vanishing wreck on Westward Ho! beach](https://www.devon.gov.uk/historicenvironment/wp-content/uploads/sites/46/2013/10/The-vanishing-wreck-on-Westward-Ho-beach-240x146.jpg)](https://www.devon.gov.uk/historicenvironment/wp-content/uploads/sites/46/2013/10/The-vanishing-wreck-on-Westward-Ho-beach.jpg)

Two in North Devon are [merchant ships](http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MDV63741&resourceID=104) from the 1700s, [one of them](https://www.devon.gov.uk/historicenvironment/explore-devons-heritage/vanishing-wreck-westward-ho/) thought to have been carrying a cargo of port wine! (pictured right)

The [earliest ](http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MDV69888&resourceID=104)has been lying off Axmouth in East Devon for much longer and has medieval characteristics – it was spotted in 2001 after the flow of the River Axe changed.