By Sam Elliott-Gibbs The race is on to save a well-preserved shipwreck thought to be hundreds of years old that washed ashore on a UK beach. Locals in Orkney, Scotland, say the vessel is beginning to break up and time is ticking to protect the historic structure. The timbers are held together with large wooden pegs in a style understood to have been commonly used as far back as the 17th century and attempts to rescue the separated pieces are underway. Locals on the island of Sanday believe it may have been released from the seabed by recent violent winter storms that have battered Britain. It …