Shipwreck off the Devon coast

News stories are reporting that a cargo ship that's run aground off of the southwestern English coast is attracting looters. This reminds me of a coffeetable book I once read by John Fowles (of The French Lieutenant's Woman fame), Shipwreck. It was a collection of photographs of shipwrecks from along the Cornish coast, from the 19th century up to the mid-1960s, with extended caption provided by Fowles. The book said that the treacherous coast was famous for dooming hapless ships, and the inhabitants were famous for flocking to the shore to carry off the washed-up cargoes. So in this case it looks like nature and the natives are both playing true to type.