On the evening of December 28, 1583, the merchant ship Ann Francis was caught in a storm and wrecked near Port Talbot, Wales. The ship carried gold and silver coins, compasses, weapons, and padlocks—including one so well-preserved experts wondered if it could be opened like a regular lock.

In a recent statement , a team of experts from Amgueddfa Cymru–Museum Wales and Cardiff University in the U.K. announced that yes, we in fact can open the padlock the way it was intended. The passcode for the brass lock is “A, N, C, E.” Remarkably, the researchers deduced the code from CT scans of the lock, without damaging the artifact, which dates back to the Elizabethan era .…