A year on since a shipwreck off the English south coast, locals are still talking about their wild days of pillaging. But they are keeping mum on who grabbed the best plunder.
The remains of the MSC Napoli cargo ship are still visible off the coast of Branscombe. Debris still occasionally washes up on the beach.
Damaged by storms in the English Channel, the 62,000-tonne container ship was deliberately beached in the bay on Jan. 20 last year.
About a hundred containers fell off the ship and washed up on shore.
Delighted local residents, followed by scavengers from all over the country, went to the beach and spent two days and nights looting booty.
Motorbikes, spare car parts, clothes and make-up were all taken in a crazed treasure hunt.
Plundering the washed-up booty was legal - as long as it was registered with the receiver of the wreck.
Tales about those hours of madness are plentiful. But Branscombe is keeping mum on what happened to the most precious plunder, including 17 BMW motorbikes.
The police have seized two of them, their finders having not reported them correctly, said Alison Kentuck, deputy receiver of the wreck.
Thirteen have been correctly reported and are still in the hands of the finders.
But the whereabouts of the other two remain a mystery.
In the neighboring village of Beer, The Dolphin Hotel's proprietor Darren Clinch has two barrels decorating the bar.
"We picked up the barrels from the beach," he said. "We had fantastic fun, until all those people came. There must have been 15,000 people.
" Work to remove the remaining stern section is expected to begin in April. However, the Napoli's 14-tonne anchor will stay to form the centerpiece of a display marking the shipwreck.
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