Rum Sodomy & the Lash - Irish Maritime Times & Lore

CDfm

I saw the Kathleen & May was up for sale and it struck me that we see very little about Irish Seafaring mentioned and it was a huge thing for Ireland. I had been planning a shipwreck thread when I saw this.

I am still into my shipwrecks but want to look a bit further.

There were some hugely significant Irish Sailors out there , as well as pirates, invasions and emigration.





The beautiful schooner the Kathleen & May was once the flagship of Youghal. Rescued as a wreck by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh in 1970 -it was restored to its former glory.

It got me thinking that as an island nation the sea loomed large but Ireland is not known as a seafaring nation.

I am sure the Lusitania & Titanic have been covered elsewhere as will the coffin ships so its not about those.

Kathleen & May - 1900




The last remaining wooden hull three masted top sail schooner

The Kathleen and May was built in 1900 at Ferguson and Baird’s yard at Connah’s Quay near Chester, for Captain John Coppack of Coppack Bros. and Co., the town’s leading shipowners. The schooner was launched in April 1900 and named after the Captain’s two daughters, the Lizzie May. She was a three-masted topsail schooner of 136 tons gross (99 tons net), with a registered length of 98.4 feet, breadth of 23.2 feet and a hold 10.1 feet deep. She was planked with 3 inch thick seasoned pitch pine, laid on heavy doubled frames of oak and fastened with treenails and iron bolts. In her first 8 years she sailed nearly 40,000 miles, carrying various cargoes of over 24,000 tons from Oban to the Channel Islands, London and Ireland.
In 1908 she was purchased by Martin J Fleming of Youghal and renamed the Kathleen and May after his daughters. She became part of the owner’s fleet of coal ships, trading between the Bristol Channel ports and Youghal and was a familiar and much loved sight in Youghal Harbour for over 20 years.
When the schooner was built, all three topsail yards were of almost the same size, but her new owner added a longer lower yard sometime before the First World War. At a later date a martingale was fitted to the bowsprit but this was removed in 1947. The original reefing gear fitted was the first known example of Appledore roller reefing, the sail being reefed by a ratchet lever that engaged the cogs on the gaff boom thereby winding the sail around it and then locked to prevent the sail unwinding from the boom. This has all now been fully restored.
The Kathleen and May was sold to Captain Jewell from Appledore in North Devon in 1931. The trip to her new home was to be her last journey under sail alone. On arrival she was given a refit, her topmasts were reduced in height and topsails removed. She was fitted with an 80bhp Beardmore engine.
She continued in the coal trade and was often seen plying her trade around the waters of Youghal. She survived the severe storms of February 1936 (when the Nellie Fleming was lost) and Martin J Fleming made sure that a watch was kept for her along the Waterford and Wexford coast. In 1937 she experienced engine trouble under Youghal’s lighthouse, but managed to steer clear of harm. In 1943 her old Beardmore engine was replaced by a second hand 125bhp Deutz. In 1945 William Jewell died and the schooner was left to his son Tommy and she continued trading until 1961. She is now equipped with a 400 hp Detroit (ex-lifeboat engine) with twin hydraulically driven props for manoeuvrability and carries enough fuel to do 2000 miles under engine alone.
During 1968, the Kathleen and May was discovered in bad repair by the Duke of Edinburgh who created the Maritime Trust in London to help preserve her. She was bought by them in 1970. They began restoring her as a typical West Country schooner, as she was the only remaining example of these trading schooners.
In 1998 Steve Clarke from Bideford in Devon bought her, after the Maritime Trust failed to secure a £2 million lottery bid. She was towed back to Bideford and moored at a disused coal wharf where restoration work began..



http://www.kathleenandmay.co.uk/

The Fleming family were successful merchants when Youghal was an important port & George Thomas - the Rajah from Tipperary worked from them before he went to India.

http://home.alphalink.com.au/~agilbert/rajah1.html

There is lots out there, pirates, smugglers, shipwrecks, and the history and lore and the characters connected with it.

Fratton Fred

Ireland was very much part of the tea/sugar/slave trading industry, with wealthy merchant operating out of Cork, Belfast and Limerick.a lot of these merchants also acted as privateers during war as well.

I will try and find an article.

CDfm

Pirates you say Fred, well one of the only Irish Pirates I have come accross is Anne Bonny.

Red haired she was the daughter of a lawyer William Cormac and a sevant Peg Brennan and was born in Kinsale around 1705.

Williams wife was not at all happy and the resulting scandal meant William ,Peg and Anne emigrated to the Carolinas where he became a successful merchant who owned a plantation.

Here is a contemperary sketch of her dressed as a man for battle but with her , ahem, breasts showing.





A little bit on her career

[FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]. Before Anne was out of her teens she married James Bonney, a renegade seaman and sometimes pirate. At this time pirates frequented Charleston. James planned to steal William Cormac's land through the marriage but Anne's father disowned her before this could be done. Legend has it that in retaliation, Anne burned the plantation to the ground.[/FONT] [FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Thy fled to Nassau, the pirate haven. It was called New Providence back then. James proved a coward and a traitor, became a paid snitch for the governor. Anne preferred the company of the island's notorious pirates and women and soon distanced herself from James. [/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
After meeting the pirate "Calico Jack" Rackham (nicknamed for his loud striped pants) she became romantically involved with him. He had just commandeered a ship full of liquor from his former boss, pirate captain Charles Vane. When James Bonney objected to the affair, he abducted Anne, brought her naked before the governor and charged her with the felony of deserting him. Calico Jack suggested instead putting Anne up for sale to the highest bidder because Anne was considered to be stolen property (a 'kinder' legal practice for divorce at the time). James got a court order forbidding Jack and Anne to see each other. Despite Jack's rather less-than-romantic proposal, Anne ran away with Calico Jack and joined his ship's crew, apparently disguised as a man.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]There are many tales of her violent temper, Anne proved a daring and deadly fighter, using swords and pistols. Her violence began with her alleged stabbing murder of an English serving-maid while Anne was a teen on her father's plantation. While on shore in Nassau she became such an expert fencer. Once she publicly stripped her fencing instructor with her sword, and severely beat a man with a chair for making a pass at her. Who knows how much of this is fictional. Much of the tales of pirates and outlaws are exaggerated.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Her exploits at sea gained Anne the most notoriety. While raiding with Calico Jack, she developed a mutual attraction with Jack's lieutenant. 'He' turned out to be none other than Mary Read. It is rumored that they had a lesbian romance after revealing their gender to each other. They fought with even more courage than many the men, this they proved in their final battle. Both were known as bloodthirsty, daring female pirates.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A former pirate turned pirate-hunter, Captain Barnet, attacked Calico Jack's ship in 1720. Barnet caught Rackham and his crew. Attacking with cannon fire so thick the men hid below decks. Anne is said to have shouted, "If there's a man among ye, ye'll come out and fight like the men ye are to be." When this got no response, they were outraged by the men's cowardice. Anne and Mary shot the male pirates, killing one and wounding several including Jack Rackham. Only Anne Bonney and Mary Read stood their ground, fighting furiously. But despite Anne and Mary's ferocity, the pirates were captured.[/FONT]

At this time women had no rights whatsoever, however it was illegal to execute a pregnant woman so Anne and Mary, "plead their bellies," claiming to be pregnant. All were hanged, except for Anne and Mary. After the trial, Anne Bonney disappeared from the historical record. It is rumored she was hanged a year later, however other rumors were she was granted a reprieve, some even say she returned to her father, some say her husband. Even one ridiculous myth says she became a nun.

http://www.charlestonpirates.com/anne_bonney.html

Folklore has it that meeting up with Calico Jack before he was to hang she told him

" If you had fought like a man, you neednt hang like a dog.Do straighten up Jack" ( She was from Cork and appearences are very important)

Unlike her fellow female pirate Mary Read who died in prison , she did not die and was released from prison after a year.

According to some accounts she went back to South Carolina

According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), Anne Bonny’s father managed to pay the ransom for his daughter and bring her back to the Charles Town. Soon after, she gave a birth to Rackham’s child. In 1721 she remarried to Joseph Burleigh. They had eight children. She died in April 25, 1782 in South Carolina.

http://www.thewayofthepirates.com/famous-pirates/anne-bonny.php

Fratton Fred

Actually privateers are slightly different. They are pirates that only attack their country's enemies. For e,ample, when England was engaged in one of its annual wars again Spain or France, they would licence a privateer to pillage their current enemies trade routes.

John Roche from Limerick and Waddell Cunningham from Belfast spring to mind.

CDfm

Fratton Fred wrote: »

John Roche from Limerick and Waddell Cunningham from Belfast spring to mind.

Well spring 'em onto the thread - ya scurvy dog

EDIT -I wonder if any of the dispossessed Irish turned to piracy- Grace O'Malley did partake so their was a tradition of privatteeering??

CDfm

Here is an Irish Shipwrecks Site Covering the 18 th Century to present and it mostly covers merchant shipping

Irish Shipwrecks

Irish Shipwrecks database is a searchable database of ship wrecks on and off the Irish Coast. The intent of this site is to provide maritime researchers and wreck divers with information pertaining to the numerous shipwrecks around the coast of Ireland and to increase awareness of this valuable historical and recreational resource.
The material on this site has been obtained from original sources such as Admiralty and Board of Trade Wreck Returns, The Life Boat Journal, Lloyd's List and contemporary newspapers rather than from recently published books or other maritime websites.

The site is searchable

http://www.irishshipwrecks.com/shipwrecks.php?wrecksPage=1

Here is a detailed listing from 1796 of the scuttling of the french frigate La Surveillante

Wrecks List Total Records: 1 Name Nationality Location Date Lost La Surveillante French Bantry Bay Co Cork 1796
La Surveillante : Owner French Navy Flag French Builder Built at Lorient Port Build Date 1718 Official No
Material Lloyds Register Weight Tons Launched Dimensions 143 | 37 | 22 Ship Type Frigate Propulsion Sail Ships Role War Ship Rigging Style Frigate 3 Masted Screws Funnels Owner and Registration History Location Bantry Bay Co Cork Date Lost 02/01/1796 Captain Cause Scuttled Crew Lost Position 51.70 N / 09.55 W Passengers Lost Google Map Location History On 16 January 1796, the French Armada of 48 ships including 13,000 troops, left Brest for Ireland with the aim of landing at Bantry in the southwest of the country. Bantry was chosen as the landing place as it offered sheltered anchorage for the fleet and because it was proximal to Cork, a major commercial center and important naval port on the south coast.
The capture of Cork would ensure that a major port close to France could serve as a communications and supply center with the France, and would serve a major blow to the occupying British forces.
Subsequent to capturing Cork, combined French and Irish forces would then march on Dublin, the English administrative and military center, and establish an Irish revolutionary convention there to control the country.
From the outset of the campaign, the Armada was beset by ill fortune. Bad weather and poor leadership resulted in only 33 of the original vessels reaching a rendezvous point off Mizen Head on 19th December. Over the next two weeks, stormy weather, confusion over orders and the loss of a number of vessels prompted the depleted Armada to return to France.
On 2nd January, prior to departure, the French forces sank La Surveillante in the Bay, as she was storm damaged and not seaworthy to make the return journey to France. Her compliment of 600 cavalry under General Mermet was transferred to other ships and a number of her guns were salvaged before the crew scuttled her.

http://www.irishshipwrecks.com/shipwrecks.php?date_from=&date_to=&off_number=&wreck_ref=154

PatsytheNazi

Gráinne Ní Mháille (c. 1530 – c. 1603) from Mayo otherwise known as Grace O'Malley would be one of the most well known Irish pirate's of folklore. Like Drake, Raleigh, Sinbad the Sailor, how much historical accuracy that can be crdited to her expolits is a very grey area.

Here's a wiki on her http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_O'Malley

wreckmaster

Pirates ye be after, there be none on my website own-ee honest merchant men, ye might find some over yonder in google books http://books.google.ie/books?id=rIXe67Wp2sIC&lpg=PA54&dq=%22%20pirates%20%22%20%22%20Ireland%22&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false

Wreckmaster

PatsytheNazi

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Actually privateers are slightly different. They are pirates that only attack their country's enemies. For e,ample, when England was engaged in one of its annual wars again Spain or France, they would licence a privateer to pillage their current enemies trade routes.

John Roche from Limerick and Waddell Cunningham from Belfast spring to mind.

Privateers also paid taxes and received knighthoods etc did they not ?

PatsytheNazi

What was the commercial/political reasons for the British in helping to end pirating ?

Fratton Fred

PatsytheNazi wrote: »

Privateers also paid taxes and received knighthoods etc did they not ?

I guess so. They were kind of mercenaries and weren't exclusively British. The French and Spanish used them regularly as well, in fact I believe the French ship in the film master and commander was a privateer.

Fratton Fred

PatsytheNazi wrote: »

What was the commercial/political reasons for the British in helping to end pirating ?

Same as everyone else. The same reason as today.

CDfm

I suppose it might , but nothing beats the Sack of Baltimore for shock value with Ottaman pirates landing pillaging and taking the villagers into slavery. .

The Irish had been into Piracy & Slavery since at least St Patricks time with Niall of the Nine Hostages and the Irish were enslaved by the Norse/Vikings.

The Sack of Baltimore In the summer of 1631 Baltimore fell victim to the most spectacular raid by pirates in Irish history. At that time the population consisted chiefly of settlers from England who had arrived some years earlier to work in the lucrative pilchard fishery under lease from the O'Driscoll chieftain, Sir Fineen O'Driscoll. Piracy was rife along the shores of West Cork, much of it of a home-grown variety. However, the danger in this case was from farther afield.
On board the two ships that left Algiers was a combined force of Dutch, Algerians and Turks under the command of one of the most resourceful leaders of Barbary pirates, a renegade Dutchman called Murat Reis the Younger. By the time they reached the coast of West Cork, more than 1,000 miles away, they had already seized a number of smaller vessels, imprisoning their crews. The captain of one was a Dungarvan man by the name of John Hackett. Reis' original target was probably Kinsale, but the town was declared 'too hot' to attack and in return for his freedom Hackett offered to pilot him to the defenceless village of Baltimore. Undetected, the pirates anchored outside the harbour 'about a musket shot from the shore' late in the evening of 19th June. From here they launched an attack on the sleeping village before dawn the next day.
The inhabitants were taken completely by surprise. More than 200 armed corsairs landed in the Cove torching the thatched roofs of the houses and carrying off with them 'young and old out of their beds'. Moving on to the main village, the pirates took more captives before musket fire and the beating of a drum warned the remaining villagers to take evasive action. By the time the raid was over more than 100 men, women and children had been taken. They were herded back to the ships, which bore them away from the coves of West Cork to the slave markets of North Africa.
The raid on Baltimore was the worst-ever attack by Barbary corsairs on the mainland of Ireland or Britain. Most of the names in the official report sound English, but it is likely that there were also a few native Irish among the prisoners. What is certain is that very few of the 107 were ever heard of again – three women at most, who were ransomed up to 14 years after their abduction. The fate of the rest is unknown, unlike that of Hackett who was hanged on a clifftop outside the village.
The Sack of Baltimore is fertile ground for conspiracy theories. They generally point the finger at the rapacious Sir Walter Coppinger who had been seeking to prise the village away from the O'Driscolls, remove the settlers and secure it for himself. Whether by accident or design, the pirates carried out part of this plan for him. In the aftermath of the raid the surviving villagers moved inland to Skibbereen and elsewhere in search of greater security and Coppinger's designs on the village were realised. The Sack marked the end of the 400-year reign of the O'Driscolls as overlords of Baltimore.

Further reading: The Stolen Village - Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates by Des Ekin, O'Brien Press Ltd

wreckmaster

Privateer for sale at Kinsale
http://www.irishshipwrecks.com/pdf-read/kinsale.pdf

Privateer and his prize for sale at Kinsale
http://www.irishshipwrecks.com/pdf-read/kinsale2.pdf

Shipping Reports Ireland 1712
http://www.irishshipwrecks.com/pdf-read/shipping-report.pdf

CDfm

Wow wreckmaster.

Looking at the registers the real danger to merchant shipping during wartime in WWI & II was torpedoes.

So at what stage did the practice of "piracy" and "privateering" and taking booty and prizes cease ?

CDfm

Grainneuaile her nickname means "Bald Grace" came about as she cut her hair to get on ships and carried on the business of any chief or clan at that time.

Calling her a Pirate is a bit of a put down as she was very skilled and educated. When she met Queen Elizabeth they communicated in Latin - the language of diplomacy at that time.

How she learned her trade.

As a child, Grace often sailed with her father on trading missions overseas. Once, upon returning from a trip to Spain, their ship was attacked by an English vessel. Grace had been instructed by her father to hide below deck if they ever were attacked, but she did not heed his advise. Instead she climbed up onto the sail rigging. Watching the battle from above, she noticed an English pirate sneaking up on her father, raising a dagger behind his back! The brave Granuaile leapt off of the rigging, through the air and onto the pirate's back.... screaming all the while! The distraction this caused was enough for the O'Malleys to regain control of the ship and defeat the English pirates.
She spent her young life learning the ways of the sea and grew to be quite the sailor--eventually having her own fleet of ships. Her family had become wealthy mainly through fishing and trade, but in her later life, Grace took up piracy by taking on Turkish and Spanish pirate ships and even the English fleets. She grew her estate to include a fleet of ships as well as several islands and castles on the west coast of Ireland.
In her later years, Grace developed her reputation as a fearless leader through her efforts in battle along side her followers. Legend has it that Grace gave birth to one of her sons while out to sea. The very next day following the birth of the baby, the ship was attacked by Turkish pirates. Though exhausted from giving birth Grace grabbed a gun, went on deck and proceded to rally her men against the Turks, forcing their retreat.
Grace married two times in her life. Her first husband was Donal O'Flaherty who was the son of the chieftain of the O'Flaherty clan and next in line for the post as chieftain. Grace and Donal married when was about 16 years old. In those times, it was common for families to arrange marriages so the union between Grace and Donal was probably more political than emotional at first. The O'Flahertys were a seafaring people, much like the O'Malleys, so Grace was right at home with their clan. Over the course of their marriage, Grace learned more about seafaring from Donal and his clan and added to her knowledge of sailing and trading at sea. Grace was soon in charge of the O'Flaherty fleet of ships and ruled the waters surrounding their lands. Although it was unusual for a woman to lead men, Grace earned the respect of all who followed her through her shrewdness as well as her knowledge of sailing and bravery at sea. Her husband, Donal, had a reputation for being quite a "hot head" and his temper eventually cost him his life in battle against a rival clan. They were married for a total of nineteen years.
According to Irish law, widows were entitled to a portion of their husbands estates. But for some reason, the O'Flahertys did not follow this tradition. Grace was forced to rely on the O'Flaherty clan for support. She did not like this, so she set out on her own, taking with her a loyal group of followers and traded on the seas to earn her own way. She used what she learned from her father in her youth and from her husband and eventually was able to break away from the O'Flaherty Clan altogether. Grace moved back with the O'Malley clan bringing her followers with her -- Grace had become a Chieftain in her own right and the heir as Chieftain of the O'Malley clan.
In equally as political a move, Grace married her second husband, Richard Burke in an effort to strengthen her hold on the west coast area of Ireland. Since the death of Donal, she had built her empire to include five castles and several islands in Clew Bay, but needed Rockfleet castle in the northeast side of the bay to complete her stronghold on the area.

A brief biography

[FONT=Times New Roman,Times][SIZE=+4]Granuaile[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times][SIZE=+4](also known as Grace O’Malley)[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times][SIZE=+4]Irish Pirate[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times][SIZE=+1]By Cindy Vallar[/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=+1]There came to me…a most famous feminine sea captain…. This was a notorious woman in all the coasts of Ireland. – Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland 1576[/SIZE] [SIZE=+1]Pursuit of maritime trading in the Atlantic from Ireland to Spain or Scotland required only the most stalwart and skilled of sailors. The harsh weather, hazardous conditions, and pirate attacks often proved fatal. One Irish clan, in particular, proved adept at mastering those dangers – the O’Malleys. While fishing occupied much of their time, they adapted a common practice amongst warring clans – lifting (stealing) enemy cattle – and became quite successful in the process. Being sailors, the O’Malleys took to the sea to raid their neighbors. Few victims sought reprisal because of the O’Malleys’ seamanship and the remoteness of Clare Island.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]Granuaile was born around 1530, the only daughter of Dudara and Margaret O’Malley. Her father was a sea captain and chieftain of the O’Malley clan. From an early age Granuaile welcomed danger and despised cowardice. She possessed an astuteness of politics and tactics, and utilized this to negotiate shrewd deals. She dared the impossible to gain the advantage. She led by example. According to one legend, the English attacked her father’s ship on a return voyage from Spain. Ignoring her father’s order to stay belowdecks, she saved his life by jumping on his attacker’s back. Another oft-told tale tells of the day after her youngest son’s birth at sea. Algerian pirates attacked Granuaile’s ship. When her men began to lose, she dashed on deck and rallied them to defeat the pirates.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]At the age of fifteen or sixteen she wed Donal O’Flaherty. They had three children: Owen, Murrough, and Margaret. Her husband proved inept in providing for his people, so Granuaile stepped forward to help them survive. Although the law forbade her from holding the chieftaincy, she in fact became chief. When her husband died and her inheritance was denied her, she returned to her father’s home and sailed aboard his ships. Two hundred men followed her to Clare Island and under her leadership they embarked on a career of piracy, or as Granuaile preferred to say maintenance by land and sea.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]Her fleet of swift galleys could sail into shallow waters or endure the rough waters of the Atlantic. At least thirty men manned the oars and when winds were favorable, sail drove the vessels. Often, Granuaile waylaid merchant ships bound for Galway, a port closed to the O’Malleys. Once on board, she negotiated with the captain, levying tolls and providing pilots for safe passage. If her offer was refused, her men pirated the merchant’s cargo.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]Few dared to enter the waters of Clew Bay because of the dangerous reefs and currents. The remoteness of the land deterred intruders and pursuers alike. Yet, there was one part of Clare Island not owned by the O’Malleys – Rockfleet Castle, which was hidden from passing ships but allowed those within to see every ship that plied the waters. So, Granuaile married its owner, Richard-in-Iron Bourke. They had one son, Tibbott-ne-long. At the time Brehon law permitted divorce, and while Richard was away, Granuaile locked the castle doors and waited for his return. When he arrived, she declared them divorced.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]In 1578, the President of Munster, Lord Justice Drury, described Granuaile as a woman that hath impudently passed the part of womanhood and been a great spoiler, and chief commander and director of thieves and murderers at sea to spoille this province…. She had been captured the previous year and imprisoned in Limerick Gaol before being transferred to Dublin Castle, where few prisoners emerged from the dungeons. Granuaile proved an exception, for after 18 months of imprisonment she was freed.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]Six years later, the Governor of Connaught died and Sir Richard Bingham arrived to fill the office. His primary goal? Eradicate the Gaelic way of life by force.

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In 1586, he captured Granuaile and brought her to the gallows, but rather than meet her death, she was exchanged for her son-in-law and 1,000 cattle. Then her eldest son was killed and youngest son imprisoned. Having no other recourse, Granuaile petitioned Queen Elizabeth to pardon her for being forced to protect her own interests because the English governors proved incapable of coping with the situation in Ireland, and to grant her some monies on which to live because her rightful inheritances had been denied her. In exchange, Granuaile vowed to fight the queen’s enemies. Elizabeth dispatched a list of 18 questions in response to the request. Granuaile’s answers were guarded and she highlighted events that the English would find least objectionable while omitting any mention of piracy and rebellion. Not content to allow Elizabeth to base her decision just on those answers, Granuaile sailed to England and met with the queen at Greenwich Castle in September 1593. What transpired during that meeting remains a mystery, but Elizabeth granted Granuaile’s requests over the objections of Bingham. Although he grudgingly complied with his queen’s orders, he was recalled two years later and returned to England in disgrace.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]Granuaile lived in turbulent times, yet she succeeded where few women ever dared to go. In so doing, she also survived the hazards and hostilities of the 16th century, commanding men and ships until her death around 1603. Legend says that she died in Rockfleet Castle and was buried in the Cistercian abbey on Clare Island.[/SIZE]

http://www.cindyvallar.com/granuaile.html

CDfm

Privateers could really only operate in wartime and often sought other careers as smugglers and wrecking could be profitable.

Up until 1765 a lot of smuggling was routed via the Isle Of Man.

Here is an interesting piece from the Ulster Historical Society

16.1.5 Smuggling, quarantine and wrecking
Mercantilist regulations inevitably encouraged smuggling, but its illegality precludes any accurate assessment of its extent. Undoubtedly, as the statutes show, it was a problem, but it is debatable whether it was as serious as was alleged, or whether it was any worse in Ireland than in the other British possessions. Although the best profits for smugglers lay in the more moneyed economy of the east of Ireland and in particular in the area around Dublin, many parts of the indented Irish coast lent themselves to smuggling. The three principal commodities in this illicit market were spirits, tobacco and tea, but from time to time there was some variation in demand for specific goods and the quantities of them. Apprehending smugglers was often a difficult and dangerous activity. They were ruthless individuals, frequently with a degree of social acceptability in the neighbourhood where they operated.
Until 1765, when it was acquired by the British government for £70,000, the great smuggling entrepôt in the Irish sea was the Isle of Man. An independent possession of the Duke of Athol, the Isle of Man levied its own extremely low customs duties to encourage this entrepôt trade. In an effort to prevent it, parliament in 1725 (12 Geo. I, c. 2) threatened forfeiture of goods and a fine of treble their value against spirits and tobacco that 'are secretly imported into this kingdom in small ships and vessels or boats under the burthen of twenty tons from the Isle of Man'. In 1788 Lord Lieutenant Buckingham commented to the Home Secretary, Lord Sydney, on a bill aimed at discouraging tobacco smuggling in which 'the liberty of importing tobacco into the port of Londonderry is taken away from the first day of March 1789 on account of the enormous smuggling committed by the inhabitants of that district'.
In 1743, the Bordeaux merchant John Black wrote to his brother Robert Black, a merchant in Portugal, about his 'son Robert your godson; he is now these several years in partnership with a very worthy man Mr David Rosse at Douglas, Isle of Man, where I assure you they are making a little fortune with the brandy, rum, wine and tea trade'. This was a very convenient trade, as the family firm in Bordeaux could consign goods legitimately to the Isle of Man. From there it was a short run to either England or Ireland. The real nature of Rosse, Black and Christian's business is indicated by the fact that in 1765, after the British government closed the Isle of Man loophole, Robert hastened to wind up his business. By 1766 his father and brothers were preparing for his return to Belfast. Family connections were important in all aspects of business, and Black's earlier correspondence with his brother gives many sidelights on methods used to circumvent customs regulations. For instance, in November 1740 he wrote that 'the sherry adventure is well arrived in Leith and with some difficulty received to an entry and a profitable trade.' Choosing the right port to present 'sham certificates' required skill, and in February 1741 John Black suggested that next season London should be avoided for the entry of Spanish goods sent via Portugal to take advantage of the Anglo-Portuguese trade treaty.
After 1765, when the Isle of Man lost its advantages, direct trade with the continent was resumed. The Isle of Man's position in the contraband trade was partly inherited by the Channel island of Guernsey. Roscoff in Brittany was another popular source of supplies, but this involved a longer run into Ireland where the small port of Rush in Co. Dublin, with its proximity to the capital, was a prominent haunt of smugglers. The smugglers' back-cargo was interesting, as it included such unexpected articles as counterfeit money and, as the law of copyright did not exist in Ireland, pirated editions of books.
The variation in the type of smuggler was immense, from the cut-throat brigand to the many generally legitimate traders who engaged in a little smuggling on the side. This mixture of legitimate and illegitimate trading complicated the work of the Revenue officials, many of whom were poorly qualified and worse paid for their often dangerous duties. The strict enforcement of mercantilist policies presented them with an almost impossible task. For example an entry in the eighteenth-century account book of the O'Connells of the Iveragh Peninsula, Co. Kerry reads: 'To ---, the boatman who came here seeking a prey 5s 5d'. The O'Connells were partners in a small business trading in Nantes. They were noted smugglers for, as one of them later recorded, 'their faith, their education and their wine were equally contraband.' Smuggling was widespread in this area. Many members of the Co. Kerry grand jury were from time to time involved in similar activities. In 1737 it was reported that at Galway, where the city gates were still locked at night, 'the smugglers made use of picklocks to open the Gates of the Garrison whenever they pleased in the night time, by bribing the Centrys [sic]; and by that means conveyed in or out, what uncustomed goods they thought proper.' These had in*cluded 50 tons of wool which was taken from Roundstone to France in a large Dutch-built ship.
Early in the eighteenth century there was a smuggling trade in raw wool. Irish wool was in demand for blending with grades grown in France and elsewhere. However, by the middle of the century rising demand from England had led to a relaxation in restrictions and a secure and elastic market with the English wool merchants. On one occasion early in the century, the Co. Cork Revenue officials had intercepted a cargo near Clonakilty and Speaker Boyle, the local landlord, was offered this untimely seizure as an excuse for rent arrears among his tenants in the town of Clonakilty! Smugglers often had exchange facilities. For example, in 1784 Arthur Annesley instructed his agent John Moore to arrange to transfer his rents through a bill of exchange that he had given to Jameson, one of his tenants, who, it tran*spired, was a smuggler, as Annesley was informed that 'there were 321 casks of brandy taken out of a dunghill in his yard by the Revenue officers lately.' Among European nations smuggling was almost universal in the eighteenth century. Each nation sought to establish an exclusive trade zone and thereby tempted other nations to break into it.
However, a serious consideration (17 Geo. II, c. 12) was the breaking of quarantine regulations that inevitably accompanied smuggling. In 1728 ships coming from Greece and the Greek Islands were placed under a 40-day quarantine as suspected carriers of plague, and there were numerous similar incidents throughout the century. One of the last statutes of the Irish parliament, 40 Geo. III, c. 79, stated that:

It is notorious that notwithstanding the many good laws made to prevent the clandestine importation of customable and prohibited goods and merchandises, a pernicious trade of that kind is still carried on in open boats or vessels of small burden, which privately put into creeks and secret places on the coast ... which practice may prove highly detrimental to the safety of this kingdom during a time of in*fection.

Another illegality was the practice of wrecking for profit. The variety of coastal cliffs is shown in Co. Antrim, where within a few miles there are the basalt headlands at Fair Head, the hexagonal columns of the Giant's Causeway, and the limestone cliffs at Portrush. It was off this coast that the Gerona, commanded by Alonzo da Levya and carrying the sons of the leading Spanish nobility, foundered in the storms that completed the destruction of the Armada in 1588.
Much of the Irish coast is very treacherous and in the eighteenth century the Irish parliament passed repeated statutes against looting and wrecking. For instance, in 1783 (23 & 24 Geo. III, c. 48), 'an act for the amendment of the law in relation to the danger of perishing at sea' declared that 'many wicked enormities have been committed to the ... grievous damage of merchants and mariners of our own and other countries', and reiterating that it was a capital offence to 'put out any false lights with intention to bring any ship or vessel into danger'.
In the 1730s wrecking was taking place in counties as far apart and as various as Down and Kerry,where, on 7 November 1730, the Danish East India Company's ship Golden Lyon was stranded near the residence of Thomas Crosbie (0538), MP for Dingle. The ship was insured in Denmark, and while the formalities were being resolved, Crosbie, assisted by the armed forces stationed at Dingle and Tralee, took charge of it and its cargo. On 4 June 1731 Crosbie died, and 'about twelve or one in the night a number of men broke into the house ... where the money chests were kept, wounded three of the Danes and carry'd the Chests off.' The Danish East India Company advertised a reward of one-tenth of the treasure, estimated at £9,287 6s, for its recovery and the conviction of those involved. About ten of the robbers were eventually caught and brought before the assize court, but not before they had sold a quantity of the silver, part in coin and part in wedges, for £30 to a Limerick goldsmith. In 1739 Robert Ward wrote to Judge Ward that the inclement weather had prevented him from investigating a Co. Down shipwreck, adding 'but I have made a small progress in relation to the Kilchief wreck'; he goes on to list the goods from it found in the cabins of various tenants.
The prevention of marine crime was very much in the interests of the Irish merchants so that Ireland should be a safe place for ships to call. This was particularly true for the Cork provision merchants. But, in 1722 when the St Peter of Polequin sailed from Cork to Nantes, 'there sailed in her one Philip Roche, Pierce Cullen, Andrew Cullen and Richard Neall as passengers who made themselves master of the crew not without suspicion of murthering them.' The success of the authorities against this deep-rooted tradition of marine lawlessness was limited. At the end of the century De Latocnaye describes it as still prevalent in the notoriously lawless district of Eyre Connacht, Co. Galway, and at the beginning of the nineteenth century Lord Downshire's agent was trying to restrain the inhabitants of Dundrum Bay from plundering ships wrecked off the Co. Down coast.
In wartime the threat of invasion was compounded by the danger from former smugglers turned privateers prowling in the Irish Sea. Invasion was always feared, especially during the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745. This did not occur on either occasion. Nevertheless, Ireland was invaded twice in the course of the century. In 1760 Thurot captured Carrickfergus, which he found 'totally unguarded and unprovided ... the walls were ruinous and in many places incomplete'. After demanding a ransom from Belfast he put to sea with the Mayor of Carrickfergus and three of the principal inhabitants. Shortly after he was captured by the British navy. The other occasion was Humbert's invasion of Mayo in 1798. From their peacetime careers as smugglers, many privateers knew the coast extremely well. Some, in the early wars of the century, were Irishmen exiled after 1692. During the American war John Paul Jones, who had been born in Kirkcudbright and apprenticed to a merchant in Whitehaven, returned to wreck havoc and fear on coasts he knew from childhood.



http://www.ancestryireland.com/hip_statutes.php?filename=16.1.5

wreckmaster

CDfm wrote: »

So at what stage did the practice of "piracy" and "privateering" and taking booty and prizes cease ?

Privateering ended in 1856 after the Declaration of Paris, although some countries did not sign this declaration:

'Declaration of Paris; April 16, 1856.

The Plenipotentiaries who signed the Treaty of Paris of March assembled in conference,
Considering: That maritime law in time of war has long been the subject of deplorable disputes;

That the uncertainty of the law and of the duties in such a matter gives rise to differences of opinion between neutrals and belligerents which may
occasion serious difficulties, and even conflicts; that it is consequently
advantageous to establish a uniform doctrine on so important a point;

That the Plenipotentiaries assembled in Congress at Paris cannot better
respond to the intentions by which their Governments are animated than by
seeking to introduce into International relations fixed principles in this
respect.

The above-mentioned Plenipotentiaries, being duly authorized, resolved to
concert among themselves as to the means of attaining this object; and
having come to an agreement, have adopted the following solemn declaration:

1. Privateering is and remains abolished;

2. The neutral flag covers enemy's goods, with the exception of contraband
of war;

3. Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to
capture under enemy's flag;

4. Blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective-that is to say,
maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the coast of
the enemy.

The Governments of the undersigned Plenipotentiaries engage to bring the
present declaration to the knowledge of the States which have not taken part
in the Congress of Paris, and to invite them to accede.

Convinced that the maxims which they now proclaim cannot but be received
with gratitude by the whole world, the undersigned Plenipotentiaries doubt
not that the efforts of their Governments to obtain the general adoption
thereof will be crowned with full success.

The present Declaration is not and shall not be binding, except between
those Powers who have acceded, or shall accede, to it.'

(1862) Chief points in the laws of war and neutrality, search and blockade: , p.89, John Fraser Macqueen (Internet). Available from: http://books.google.ie/books?id=0nIDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA89&dq=Declaration+of+Paris,+1856&hl=en&ei=UDcoTaDLMoGEhQf2rYXoAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDgQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=Declaration%20of%20Paris%2C%201856&f=false

Accessed 08.01.2011

wreckmaster

WRECK and PLUNDER of the INVERNESS.

Particulars of the wreck and plunder of the Inverness.
Capt Leitch in the River Shannon loaded at Limerick a cargo of provisions on account of Mr. E D. Hanmers contract with the Victualling Board, and bound to London,
From Capt Miller of the Police to Mr Spaight,Merchant,Limerick.
Kilrush Feb.22-- Dear Spaight, As I am now in possession of most of the particulars of the wreck of the Inverness I shall detail them to you as follows:--

http://www.irishshipwrecks.com/shipwrecks.php?wreck_ref=116

CDfm

Here is a guy I had not come accross before - Luke Ryan who was both a pirate and an Irish Rebel.

Its from Suite101 so the story reads well but it gives a feel for what was happening in Ireland.

The Irish were active in France and guys not to disimilar to Luke Ryan were close to Bonnie Prince Charlie in the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.

Why the Americans Commissioned an Irish Pirate



Feb 11, 2010 Ruth Wiebe
Ship's Rigging - Flickr


While in France during the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin sought help for the American prisoners in England. In this effort, help came from an unusual source.



Despite his busy schedule and numerous responsibilities, Benjamin Franklin efforts in France not only aided in America’s fight for independence, but also helped gain the release of many American prisoners in England. Benjamin Franklin’s determination to help the American prisoners was strong and unwavering. He arranged for money and supplies to be provided to the Americans held in the two prisons in England, the Old Mill Prison in Plymouth and Forton Prison in Portsmouth.
Benjamin Franklin Discovers That Americans Can't Hold British Prisoners in France

After his arrival in France, Dr. Franklin soon learned that it was normal practice to release the English prisoners brought into France, sometimes furnishing a ship to take them back to England. So while the English were holding hundreds of American prisoners in English prisons and prison ships, Americans were being forced to release their prisoners by the French government.
Some of the prisoners in England were able to escape, and Dr. Franklin had assistance ready to help them reach safety in France. This wasn’t enough as far as Dr. Franklin was concerned. He wanted all the American prisoners released. In order to hold prisoners in France, Dr. Franklin had to convince the French government to allow it. Then the next problem was to find a way to capture more prisoners for trading purposes.




In Ireland, Luke Ryan is Having Problems of His Own

Far away, in Ireland, 25 year old Luke Ryan was already a rebel against England. As a smuggler, Luke Ryan was an active participant in Ireland’s current discontent with England. After recently escaping from jail and stealing their cutter back from the government that had confiscated it, however, Luke Ryan and his crew had switched their classification from smugglers to pirates. If caught by the British again, they would now hang.
Luke Ryan Heads to France, Looking for Help from Benjamin Franklin

Luke Ryan’s creative solution was to join the Americans in their revolution. With an American commission, they would be privateers, not pirates. Captain Ryan figured that if they were caught as privateers, they would be considered prisoners of war and thereby avoid the hangman’s noose. So they sailed to France in search of Dr. Benjamin Franklin and his commission which would name them American privateers.
The Treaty of Alliance Opens a Door

Meanwhile, Dr. Franklin signed the Treaty of Alliance with France on February 6, 1778. The Treaty of Alliance made France and America allies in their fight against England and allowed the Americans to hold their prisoners in French ports. Now that he could hold prisoners for an exchange, it wasn’t long before Dr. Franklin had an agreement from Britain to exchange prisoners. All he had to do was capture more prisoners.
How to Hide a Pirate from an American Ambassador

After renaming the cutter the Black Prince to cover up its origins, Captain Ryan allowed Mr. Marchant, an American, to carry the title of captain. He called himself second captain, but it was still his crew. Dr. Franklin, needing more English prisoners, signed the commission. So the Black Prince set sail from Dunkirk as an American privateer on June 12, 1779, It was the first Irish privateer vessel commissioned by an American in France.


Benjamin Franklin's Privateers Deliver Havoc but Not Many Prisoners

Before Benjamin Franklin’s adventure in privateering was over, he commissioned three Irish-captained vessels to patrol the Irish Sea and English Channel. With his own fleet of vessels, he hoped to bring in more prisoners for a prisoner exchange with the British. Although his small fleet failed to bring in as many prisoners as he wanted, they terrorized the shipping lines and caused havoc in the British waters.

The Irish Pirate and Benjamin Franklin

Irish Privateer or Pirate, Captain Luke Ryan Was a Patriot



Feb 11, 2010 Ruth Wiebe
Ship at Sea - Author Unknown


The 'Black Prince' was the first Irish privateer vessel commissioned by Benjamin Franklin in France, but Dr. Franklin had been mislead by a clever Irish pirate, Luke Ryan



Luke Ryan was secretly the part owner and captain of the Black Prince as it set sail from Dunkirk on June 12, 1779. When Benjamin Franklin granted the commission for the privateer, he believed that it was captained by an American, Stephan Marchant, and owned by two French men. Before his adventure into privateering was over, he would commission three Irish-captained privateer vessels.
The Black Prince Sets Out for Her First Cruise as an American Privateer
Like most privateer vessels, the Black Prince had several flags in her locker, but flew none. The gun ports were closed, and she looked like any other cutter ship if you didn’t notice the 70 crewmen crowded aboard, the added gun ports and the additional swivel cannon mounted along the rails. Luke Ryan knew the English merchants and Navy sea routes in the Irish Sea and the English Channel from his days as a smuggler.




With Captain Ryan’s expertise, The Black Prince caused havoc within the British shipping line. They burned the enemy’s ships when they were unworthy prizes and captured or ransomed others. When provisions weren’t provided to them, the shores of Scotland saw the wrath of their cannon. Dr. Franklin had commissioned them to bring in prisoners for an exchange with the British. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to bring in as many prisoners as Dr. Franklin had hoped.
Captain Luke Ryan Gained Notoriety Among the British

The English were clearly notified of Luke Ryan’s exploits under the American flag, for there were reports of two English frigates patrolling the sea and looking for the Black Prince and the notorious Captain Luke Ryan. Although Ryan had sought an American commission to avoid prosecution as a pirate, it was becoming clear that England made little distinction between an American privateer and a pirate. His captured men were threatened with a hanging.
Luke Ryan Heard the Call for Freedom and He Wanted it Answered

Despite the threat of being hung as a pirate, Luke Ryan continued to seek an American commission when the first commission ended. He was fighting in a war for independence, and although it wasn’t Irish independence, it was still a call for freedom. His dreams of a commission might have hit a dead end, but after learning the whole story of Captain Ryan’s deception, Dr. Franklin was actually impressed with the young captain.
Benjamin Franklin Learns the Captain's Secret -- He's a Smuggler and a Pirate, but He's a Leader

Devising such a plan to save himself and his crew, and holding that crew’s loyalty so strongly that none of them revealed their true captain to Stephen Marchant, the figure-head American captain, was impressive. Despite Luke Ryan’s beginnings, Benjamin Franklin saw the makings of a leader in the young man. Consequently Luke Ryan was given a new commission to captain the Black Prince along with the gift of a night glass from Benjamin Franklin.


Luke Ryan Loses the Black Prince when He Becomes IllUnfortunately, Captain Ryan fell ill and the commission was passed to Patrick Dowlin, his First Lieutenant. In late September 1779, Dr. Franklin decided in favor of a new commission to the Black Princess. Unfortunately, Luke Ryan’s health had not recovered when the ship was ready to sail, so the new ship was turned over to Edward Macatter, a mate of Luke Ryan’s and highly recommended by him. Prospects looked bleak for Captain Ryan.
The Fearnot Takes to the Seas as an American Privateer, Captained by Luke Ryan
John Torris, Luke Ryan’s partner, then purchased a large cutter for the captain. It was equipped with 18 cannons and 12 swivel guns. Both Mr. Torris and Captain Ryan begged Dr. Franklin for yet another American commission for this new vessel. Having a high regard for Captain Ryan, Benjamin Franklin agreed. Now a third privateer, the Fearnot, was added to Benjamin Franklin’s fleet of Irish-captained privateers.
Although He was Never an American Citizen, He Was a Great PatriotOne American officer said of Captain Ryan that he had sailed with many brave men, but “none of them equal to this Captain Luke Ryan for skill and bravery.” Mr. Torris thought highly of Captain Ryan also, and asked that Benjamin Franklin honor Ryan’s request of a position in the Continental Navy. Captain Ryan’s American patriotism had only grown during his months as a privateer raising the 13 stripes.
Luke Ryan wrote that he would give “the last drop of [his] blood to gain honor for the American flag.” Sadly the Navy position was not given to the patriotic captain. Benjamin Franklin was just too swamped with paperwork, meetings, and other duties. Nevertheless, Captain Ryan still continued to fight for America. Although Luke Ryan never became an American citizen, he still fought for America’s independence, and he should always be considered a great patriot.

Read more at Suite101: The Irish Pirate and Benjamin Franklin: Irish Privateer or Pirate, Captain Luke Ryan Was a Patriot http://www.suite101.com/content/the-irish-pirate-and-benjamin-franklin-a200815#ixzz1ARuARsfL

CDfm

The Crew were "60 stout fellows from Rush"




http://www.jstor.org/pss/30103966

The Americans revoke Ryans Commision

However, by the summer of 1780, the activities of Irish privateers with American commissions had become a source of political irritation for the French government and a major worry to Benjamin Franklin and the American Congress. Pressure was brought to bear on reluctant Franklin to revoke American commissions to non-American nationals in his service. This was not known to Ryan who had been given command of the three-decked, thirty-two-gun frigate Calonne that was sold to Torris by the French navy and had a complement of 250 men. Before his capture in the Firth of Forth Ryan had seized thirteen prizes and had considered himself safe from British prosecution as he had acquired French citizenship, and held both an American commission and an American letter of marque. Little did he know that the commission had been withdrawn by Franklin.
Ryan had successfully captured 114 prizes from mid-1779—sailing in five different privateers: Black Prince (Friendship), Black Princess, Fearnot, La Marechal and Calonne—to his capture by the Berwick in 1781. He had ransomed a total of seventy-six masters of British vessels and exchanged 161 merchant seamen during his short and lucrative career. In just over two years, Luke Ryan and his friends Wilde (McCatter), and Dowling from Rush commanded under American and French commissions, sailed under flags of three different nations and on opposite sides in the same war. According to statistics quoted in a British House of Lords debate in February 1778, American privateers had captured or destroyed 733 British and Irish prizes with cargoes valued in excess of £2 million. In 1783 the House was told that privateers during the American war had cost the British merchant navy more than an estimated £8 million in damages.

‘Mayhem, murder & mutiny’: the trial of Luke Ryan

Ryan and Coppinger were charged with the multiple crimes of mayhem, murder, mutiny, treason and piracy against George III and were lodged in New Gaol, Southwark. On the 31 October 1781 they appeared before the infamous Admiralty justice Sir James Marriott at the High Court of the Admiralty in the Old Bailey and were formally charged by a Grand Jury for piracy and treason. Ryan’s defence never disputed that he had committed acts of privateering flying French and American colours preying on British shipping in time of war.
Ryan’s attorney, John Peckham, objected strongly to the new double charge stating that they had agreed during the plea-bargaining that the charge of piracy would be dropped and treason maintained. Ryan was joined in Newgate Prison by Edward Wilde (Black Princess) who had been captured off the Scillies. The Royal Navy had been successful in capturing all of Luke Ryan’s squadron including James Sweetman and Mathew Knight from Rush who were tried and convicted during the summer of 1782.
The trial of Luke Ryan took place at the Justice Hall of the Old Bailey on the 30 March 1782. Judge Marriot and the Attorney General Sir William Scott prosecuted. The main argument concerned Ryan’s country of birth. If he was French-born he was not subject to English law and would go free while if he was an Irish-born subject of George III then he was guilty of piracy and he would hang at Wapping. Defence witnesses from France swore that Ryan was the son of Lieutenant Joseph Ryan in Dillon’s French Brigade at Dunkirk and a register was produced showing that Ryan was born in the village of Gravelin in northern France. It was further explained that on his father’s death in France Ryan had been brought to Ireland as an infant and reared by his uncle, a tenant farmer on the Echlin estate at Kenure during the 1750s near the hamlet of Rush in the county of Dublin.
Most of the French evidence was dismissed by Marriot. The state maintained that Luke Ryan was born in Rush on the 14 February 1750 and was able to produce documentary evidence as well as Ryan’s relations from Rush who supported the state’s case. The trial lasted three weeks and the jury found Ryan guilty of piracy and treason as charged. Thomas Coppinger turned state witness and was acquitted. Edward Wilde (McCatter), Nicholas Field of Skerries, Edward Duffy of Baldungan were all convicted of piracy and treason. On the 14 May 1782, the defendants Ryan, Wilde, Field, Duffy and Thomas Farrell (the first officer aboard the Princess) were sentenced to be ‘caged’ on the 23 June 1782 at Wapping. The execution of pirates in eighteenth-century London involved first partial strangulation and then transfer in chains to heavy man-size cages suspended above the Thames. At high tide the cages were lowered into the river and the condemned men died by drowning. This was known as ‘wapping’ in cockney slang.
Captain Luke Ryan (Hibernian Magazine, May 1782)
Ryan and the others were confined to Newgate to await appeal. Ryan’s wife and five children left Rush and settled in one of the Hampshire ports, probably close to Portsmouth. In May 1782, a member of the Ryan squadron and fellow Rush man Patrick Dowling in the French Fearnot privateer and a large party of men landed at Skerries and burnt houses including that of Frederick Connygham the revenue agent. This was in retaliation for the conviction of Ryan on the evidence given by Connygham and his part in the arrest of the old Friendship at Rogerstown.

Pardon

Pressure mounted on the Rockingham ministry to pardon Ryan as a gesture of goodwill in the peace negotiations with the American and French governments and appeals flowed into the English Admiralty. Lord Shelbourne, the Home Secretary, following recommendations from cabinet suggested that Ryan should be pardoned but one of the pirates should be executed ‘for the example to others’. The Lords of the Admiralty granted a respite but sentenced Daniel Casey, Sweetman’s first mate, to death by caging.
Hostilities with the United States Congress and the Kingdom of France ceased on 27 February 1783 and Ryan and the other four prisoners were granted a ‘royal and free pardon’. Ironically, Ryan did not go free as he had accumulated huge debts for his defence during the trial and continued to languish at Newgate. The French government liquidated some of Torris’s assets and the proceeds were sent to London to clear Ryan’s legal debts. He was released on the 9 February 1784.

Aftermath

Ryan settled in Hampshire and took legal action against Torris, the French government and his bank at Roscoff for moneys (over £70,000) which he maintained was owed to him. He was declared bankrupt in 1788. He was arrested on the 25 February 1789 by the High Sheriff of Hampshire for his failure to pay £200 owed to doctors who had inoculated him and his family in the ‘Jenner’ method against smallpox. He died in the King’s Prison on the 18 June 1789 of septicaemia.

This link has a lot more background

http://www.historyireland.com/volumes/volume7/issue2/features/?id=196

CDfm

The Best Family really know how to bring the best out of people.

Synopsis
In December 1875 captain George ‘‘Bully’ Best found himself in Buenos Aires without a crew and without a cargo. His men had for the most part deserted him. Before making his way to Antofogasta, where he loaded up with Saltpeter (nitrate), he recruited a‘ mixed crew’ of Greeks and British.
The British refused to sail with the Greeks, and rather than allow them onshore to see the British Consul, captain Best beat them and put them in irons.. Even before the Caswell sailed for Queenstown on January 1 1876, an Irishman and a German jumped ship and were never heard of again.Obvious tensions might lead one to expect a British mutiny. And perhaps this might have happened had not the Greeks beaten them to it. For some unexplained reason the Greeks, under the influence of 'Big George' Peno, mutinied and killed the captain, the first and second mates, and the black Welsh steward. All four bodies were lashed to an anchor and thrown overboard.By February two of the mutineers, the brothers Pistoria, escaped by boat up the river Plate to Buenos Aires. The remainder drifted under Greek command until March 11th, when the British counter mutinied and killed two of their captors. A third mutineer was brought back to Queenstown to be tried for Murder on the High Seas.Young Christos Emmanuel Bombos found himself imprisoned with a sixty three year old Fenian named Thomas Crowe. Both men provided the spectacle of a 'double hanging' in Cork's male prison. A full eyewitness account is given of the executions, which happen to be one of the most striking events in nineteenth century penological literature.Three years later one of the escaped mutineers was arrested in Monte Video and a second trial was staged in Cork.Of the sixteen persons who set out from Buenos Aires:*two jumped ship;*four were murdered in the mutiny; *two were murdered in the countermutiny;*one was hanged in 1876 and another in 1879;
*and six returned to tell the tale.

If you scroll down thru the link you will see corespondence between William Marwood the executioner and the Governor of Cork Prison and accounts of life and discipline aboard ship. Fairly nasty.

http://irishcriminology.com/05a.html

CDfm

Things didnt go well for the Armada and ships were wrecked from the Blaskets off Kerry all the way to Derry.

In fact, it seems likely that few, if any, survivors of the Armada took up residence in Ireland. For one thing, there weren't many survivors. Perhaps as many as 17 Spanish ships ran aground or sank off the Irish coast in the fall of 1588, as the crippled Armada made its roundabout way home after its defeat in the English Channel. The records of the period are incomplete, but it's possible as many as 6,000 Spanish soldiers and sailors were dumped into the sea. Of these, 2,000 or more simply drowned. One contemporary account claimed that 1,100 bodies washed up on a five-mile stretch of beach.
Between 3,000 and 3,500 of the remainder were killed or captured by the English or their Irish minions. The English had fewer than 2,000 troops to maintain their hold on Ireland, so they resorted to the expedient of not taking any prisoners. In one instance, several hundred Spaniards were induced to surrender with the promise of honorable treatment, only to be methodically butchered the next morning.
The richest or most prominent survivors were held for ransom, or for public spectacle (the English always were a class act). Only a few hundred of the castaways managed to make it to Scotland and to the Continent with the help of sympathetic Irishmen, themselves no great lovers of the English, who at the time were attempting to consolidate their grip on their miserable neighbor.
Frankly, there was little to induce the shipwrecked soldiers and sailors to stay. The Spanish considered the Irish savages — maybe they'd been to a few Notre Dame games — and thought the island was a cold and forbidding place. One Captain Francisco de Cuellar, who managed to make it to Spanish-held Antwerp, relates in a letter how an Irish chieftain, impressed by de Cuellar's bravery, offered him his daughter's hand in marriage. The Spaniard's response was to sneak away in the middle of the night, which doesn't say much for the fair colleens you mention.
A few Spaniards stuck around for a while, of course; several were on hand to help a combined force of Scots and Irish defeat an English army at Ballyshannon in northwest Ireland in 1597.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/102/do-some-irish-names-come-from-spanish-armada-survivors

It was a huge Naval Expedition and could have hoped of success except for the Irish weather.

O'Donnell of Tyrconnell massacred some 300 guys and up to 150 others were turned over to be ransomed to the British.

[SIZE=+1]The fate of the expedition is well known. A series of disasters befell it on the coasts of France and Belgium, and finally, towards the middle of August, a terrific storm swept the Spaniards northward through the British channel, scattering ships and men helpless and lifeless on the coasts of Scotland, and even as far north as Norway. On the Irish shore nineteen great vessels were sunk or stranded. In Lough Foyle, one galleon, manned by 1,100 men, came ashore, and some of the survivors, it is alleged, were given up by O'Donnell to the Lord Deputy, in the vain hope of obtaining in return the liberation of his son. Sir John O'Doherty in Innishowen, Sir Brian O'Ruarc at Dromahaire, and Hugh O'Neil at Dungannon, hospitably entertained and protected several hundreds who had escaped with their lives. On the iron-bound coast of Connaught, over 2,000 men perished. In Galway harbour, 70 prisoners were taken by the Queen's garrison, and executed on St. Augustine's hill. In the Shannon, the crew of a disabled vessel set her on fire, and escaped to another in the offing. On the coasts of Cork and Kerry nearly one thousand men were lost or cast away. In all, according to a state paper of the time, above 6,000 of the Spaniards were either drowned, killed, or captured, on the north, west, and southern coasts. A more calamitous reverse could not have befallen Spain or Ireland in the era of the Reformation.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1] It is worthy of remark that at the very moment the fear of the armada was most intensely felt in England--the beginning of July--Sir John Perrott was recalled from the government. His high and imperious temper, not less than his reliance on the native chiefs, rather than on the courtiers of Dublin Castle, had made him many enemies. He was succeeded by a Lord Deputy of a different character--Sir William Fitzwilliam--who had filled the same office, for a short period, seventeen years before. The administration of this nobleman was protracted till the year 1594, and is chiefly memorable in connection with the formation of the Ulster Confederacy, under the leadership of O'Neil and O'Donnell.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1] Fitzwilliam, whose master passion was avarice, had no sooner been sworn into the government than he issued a commission to search for treasure, which the shipwrecked Spaniards were supposed to have saved. "In hopes to finger some of it," he at once marched into the territory of O'Ruarc and O'Doherty; O'Ruarc fled to Scotland, was given up by order of James VI., and subsequently executed at London; O'Doherty and Sir John O'Gallagher, "two of the most loyal subjects in Ulster," were seized and confined in the Castle. An outrage of a still more monstrous kind was perpetrated soon after on the newly elected chieftain of Oriel, Hugh McMahon. Though he had engaged Fitzwilliam by a bribe of 600 cows to recognize his succession, he was seized by order of the Deputy, tried by a jury of common soldiers, on a trumped up charge of "treason," and executed at his own door. http://www.nalanda.nitc.ac.in/resources/english/etext-project/history/ireland/book-8chapter7.html
[/SIZE]

CDfm

Irish monks tended to get around.

We all know they took off and joined monasteries but what did they do when they got there.

Rather, then start with St Brendan , you need to consider Dicuil who was an Irish Geographer of note who was based at the Court of the Frankish King Charlemange.His was the first scholarly reference to Iceland.

His geography was an authoritative work for centuries and he checked his sources.

Before him you had St Brendan and I mention them in this order for a reason.

DICUIL (fl. 825), Irish monastic scholar, grammarian and geographer. He was the author of the De mensura orbis terrae, finished in 825, which contains the earliest clear notice of a European discovery of and settlement in Iceland and the most definite Western reference to the old freshwater canal between the Nile and the Red Sea, finally blocked up in 767. In 795 (February 1-August 1) Irish hermits had visited Iceland; on their return they reported the marvel of the perpetual day at midsummer in "Thule," where there was then "no darkness to hinder one from doing what one would." These eremites also navigated the sea north of Iceland on their first arrival, and found it ice-free for one day's sail, after which they came to the ice-wall. Relics of this, and perhaps of other Irish religious settlements, were found by the permanent Scandinavian colonists of Iceland in the 9th century. Of the old Egyptian freshwater canal Dicuil learnt from one "brother Fidelis," probably another Irish monk, who, on his way to Jerusalem, sailed along the "Nile" into the Red Sea-passing on his way the "Barns of Joseph" or Pyramids of Giza, which are well described. Dicuil's knowledge of the islands north and west of Britain is evidently intimate; his references to Irish exploration and colonization, and to (more recent) Scandinavian devastation of the same, as far as the Faeroes, are noteworthy, like his notice of the elephant sent by Harun al-Rashid (in 801) to Charles the Great, the most curious item in a political and diplomatic intercourse of high importance. Dicuil's reading was wide; he quotes from, or refers to, thirty Greek and Latin writers, including the classical Homer, Hecataeus, Herodotus, Thucydides, Virgil, Pliny and King Juba, the sub-classical Solinus, the patristic St Isidore and Orosius, and his contemporary the Irish poet Sedulius;-in particular, he professes to utilize the alleged surveys of the Roman world executed by order of Julius Caesar, Augustus and Theodosius (whether Theodosius the Great or Theodosius II. is uncertain). He probably did not know Greek; his references to Greek authors do not imply this. Though certainly Irish by birth, it has been conjectured (from his references to Sedulius and the caliph's elephant) that he was in later life in an Irish monastery in the Frankish empire. Letronne inclines to identify him with Dicuil or Dichull, abbot of Pahlacht, born about 760.

The Voyage of Beyond the Sea

Of all the peoples credited with the discovery of the Americas, the Irish usually come way down the list. This is unfair, argues Simon Young, as the sea-going exploits of Irish monks a thousand years before Columbus took them across the Western Ocean, beyond the known edge of the world. Unusually, their search for new lands had nothing to do with politics, empire-building or converting heathens, but a yearning to practise their faith as far away from noisy civilisation as possible.

By Simon Young
October 2001
Columbus, we are told, sailed over the ocean blue and discovered North America in 1492. However, the jingle is widely disputed; behind Columbus there is a long queue of explorers who are, from time to time, pushed forward as the ‘real’ discoverers of America – the Portuguese, who are alleged to have arrived a generation before Columbus; the English, more specifically a Carmelite Friar, Nicholas of Lynne, who ventured into the polar region in the 14th century; Madog, the Welsh prince who is said to have set up a Welsh colony in Alabama in the 12th century; and the Vikings, whose ‘Markland’ is widely thought to be Labrador, Canada. And then come various other peoples, including the Carthaginians, the Egyptians, the Arabs, the Venetians, the Basques and the Picts. However, this article is dedicated to those often forgotten pioneers of exploration, the Irish, whose ancient histories include intriguing references to great islands in the western ocean.

The Irish claim to America rests primarily on a mediæval work named The Voyage of Saint Brendan. This text describes Atlantic trips made by Brendan, an Irish saint from Munster, in the sixth century, in which Brendan lands on several different islands, some of which can be identified. After years of such landfalls, Brendan finally comes to ‘The Land of Saints’ somewhere in the Western Ocean...

http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/262/the_voyage_of_beyond_the_sea.html

St Brendan's voyage was written down in bookform in what I have read described as homely latin and is titled "Navigatio sancti Brendani abbatis"

There are pro & anti St Brendan discovered America theorists- Tim Serverin the filmmaker and writer proved it was possible.

Geoffrey Ashe did not deal with these objections. For Ashe, the Voyage of Saint Brendan was not necessarily a historical description of Brendan’s travels. He considered that it might have been, instead, a scrap heap of Irish knowledge about the Atlantic welded together into a tale. The important question was, therefore, not when Brendan travelled, but when the Voyage was written. In Ashe’s day this was easily answered; scholars in the early 1960s believed that the Voyage had been penned in the ninth or the 10th century as the first surviving manuscripts date from the end of the 10th century. In other words, the Voyage was probably composed after Dicuil and could have benefited from subsequent knowledge, perhaps even Viking lore (Vikings settled in Ireland in the ninth century). However, in 1988, a paper was published that changed all this; writing in an Italian mediæval studies journal, a British academic overturned the old dating of the Voyage. 5 He showed that the text was probably written as early as the seventh or eighth centuries and that it was unlikely to have been written in the ninth or 10th centuries. So the text and the body of knowledge that it seems to represent was very likely in Irish libraries before Dicuil and quite possibly before Adomnán too.

How can we reconcile this seeming contradiction? On the one hand we have Irish writers of the eighth and ninth centuries – Adomnán (c 700) and Dicuil (c 825) – refusing to acknowledge Irish discoveries beyond Iceland. On the other we have a probably seventh or eighth-century Irish text, the Voyage, that seems to be describing coral seas and the North American mainland. If we accept Ashe’s arguments, we have, also, an approximate itinerary.

Anyway here is a link to a very readable paper on it.

http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/58/04712670/0471267058.pdf

So consider this - St Brendans book was widely read and was written somewhere between the 8 & 10 th century and there are over100 copies in existense from that period -compared to Shakespeare 1st Editions so this was one popular book. Did Christopher Columbus have a copy.

Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis (Voyage of St Brendan), a Hiberno-Latin narrative of the immram tale-type, composed possibly as early as the 8th and not later than the 10th cent. One of the most influential texts of the Middle Ages, it is contained in over 100 manuscript copies in Latin and was translated into most European vernaculars. With some followers St Brendan sets out in a coracle; over seven years they visit many islands and have numeròus adventures. Having reached the island of Saints they return to Ireland, where Brendan relates his adventures and dies shortly thereafter.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/navigatio-sancti-brendani-abbatis#ixzz1AZvp6I61

The last guy I am going to introduce you to is James of Ireland who was the companion of Odoric of Pordenone and after Marco Polo travelled to India and China.

What makes this pair remarkable is that unlike previous missionaries -they got back alive.

Here is his Wiki entry

James of Ireland, Irish friar, fl. 1316-1330.
James of Ireland was the companion of Odoric of Pordenone on his travels as far as Sumatra and China. The commune of Udine, (Friuli in north-east Italy), voted a sum of money to James for travelling with their fellow citizen.

Here is the Glossary

The Travels
of Odoric of Pordenone

Chapter 1
Here beginneth the Journal of Friar Odoricus, of the Order of the Minorites, concerning Strange Things which he saw among the Tartars of the East
Chapter 2
Of the Manners of the Chaldaeans, and of India
Chapter 3
How Pepper is had: and where it groweth
Chapter 4
Of a Strange and Uncouth Idol: and of certain Customs and Ceremonies
Chapter 5
Of certain Trees yielding Meal, Honey, and Poison
Chapter 6
Of the Abundance of Fishes, which cast themselves upon the Shore
Chapter 7
Of the Island of Sylan: and of the Mountain where Adam mourned for his son Abel
Chapter 8
Of the Upper India: and of the Province of Mancy
Chapter 9
Of the City Fuco
Chapter 10
Of a Monastery where many strange beasts of divers kinds do live upon an hill
Chapter 11
Of the City of Cambaleth
Chapter 13
Of certain inns or hospitals appointed for travellers throughout the whole Empire
Chapter 14
Of the four feasts which the great Can solemnizeth every year in his Court
Chapter 15
Of divers Provinces and Cities
Chapter 16
Of a certain rich man, who is fed and nourished by fifty virgins
Chapter 17
Of the Death of Senex de monte
Chapter 18
Of the honour and reverence done unto the great Can
Chapter 19
Of the Death of Friar Odoricus

The Anglo Norman writings by "John de Mandeville's" compilation almost certainly relied on this book amongst others such as Marco Polo as a source.

When Odoric and James returned in 1330 another monk transcribed their travels with Odoric dying on the way to meet the Pope the following year.

CDfm

Now I am not saying , St Brendan did or didn't discover America , but a lot of people believe he did.

St. Brendan -- or Somebody


Courtesy Roger Wise
These petroglyphs in West Viriginia were thought to be carved in Ogam, an Irish script used from the 6th to 8th centuries.
One of the biggest problems with the idea that St. Brendan and his crew were the first Europeans to arrive in North America is the dearth of physical evidence to support this claim. Unlike the Vikings, there is no settlement that proves the Irish were here prior to other Europeans. At one time, however, tantalizing physical evidence did emerge.
Barry Fell, a Harvard marine biologist, discovered some petroglyphs -- writings carved into rock -- in West Virginia in 1983. Fell concluded that the writing was Ogam script, an Irish alphabet used between the sixth and eighth centuries. Even more startlingly, Fell found that the message in the rock described the Christian nativity. But shortly after Fell released his findings, many in the academic community attacked his interpretation of the petroglyphs. Many scholars question his methods and refuse to accept his findings as fact. Although the petroglyphs could be Ogam script, their true origins and meaning remain unproven [source: Oppenheimer and Wirtz].
All that's left, then, is the written accounts of Brendan's voyages. The Navigatio reads like a fantastic account, laden with Biblical references -- one passage recounts how Brendan held Communion on the back of a whale. In the mind of most historians, this story puts the document in the realm of folklore. Even for those researchers who put stock into the Navigatio's underlying historical accuracy, many of the directions don't point to North America as the destination where Brendan ultimately landed. But there are documents that suggest an Irish presence in North America prior to the Vikings', including the accounts of the Vikings themselves.
The Irish were known to the Norse (Vikings) as a seafaring group that had traveled far further than the Vikings had. In their sagas -- accounts of their people's exploits -- the Vikings speak of finding Irish missions when they arrived in Iceland in the 10th century. Another saga tells of meeting Native Americans who were already familiar with white men. These indigenous peoples had already encountered explorers who dressed in white and came from a land "across from their own" [source: Lathe]. A third saga relates that the Norse encountered a tribe of indigenous Americans who spoke a language that sounded like Irish, with which the Norse were familiar.
St. Brendan was reputed as a skilled voyager, establishing missions wherever he landed. Historians generally accept that he was able to sail to Europe and islands near Ireland. But, say the skeptics, this is a far cry from crossing the North Atlantic in a curragh. This small, open vessel, made of a wooden frame covered by ox hide and waterproofed with tar, was the only seafaring technology available to the Irish during Brendan's lifetime. It was long doubted that such a boat could make the trip from Ireland to America.
But this was proven incorrect in 1976 by author and adventurer Tim Severin, who built a curragh and set out from Ireland -- just as Brendan would have. He retraced the route that Brendan is thought to have taken, from Ireland to Iceland, Greenland and eventually Newfoundland. After a year-long voyage, Severin made it, proving that the trip was at least possible in such a craft.
Severin himself admits that his experiment is a long way from definitive proof that Brendan actually made the trip. As he wrote in "The Brendan Voyage" -- his account of the experiment -- "the only conclusive proof that it had been done would be if an authentic relic from an early Irish is found one day on North American soil" [source: Wiley].


http://history.howstuffworks.com/north-american-history/irish-monk-america1.htm

And theres more

Irish petroglyph detail. Compare to the West Virginia petroglyph detail at the top left of this page. For the first time it is possible to say with some degree of certainty that there is real evidence of pre-Columbian visitors to the North American continent. In fact, you could say it is carved in stone. Twenty years of research leads to the conclusion that the same disciplines and tools were employed to create Ogam glyphs and Christian symbols (Chi-Rho) on rock faces in both southern West Virginia and southern Ireland.

In 1981, archaeologist Robert L. Pyle of Morgantown, West Virginia began exploring the mountains of southern part of the state studying petroglyphs (markings on stone) that at first glance resembled archaic runes and were different from traditional ancient American rock carvings. His archaeological research focused on petroglyph sites in Wyoming County, West Virginia, and Manchester, Kentucky. Research indicated the markings were an ancient alphabet known as Ogam (or Ogham), found in the British Isles, especially Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. (The petroglyphs in West Virginia and Kentucky exhibit what is known in Europe as "stem type Ogam.") The markings were considered in connection with the tradition of St. Brendan's voyages to this continent in the 6th century.
Another view of the recently discovered Irish petroglyph. Note the vertical Ogam markings. Dr. William Grant, Edinburgh University, Scotland, and Dr. John Grant, Oakland, Maryland, both Celtic linguists/scholars, participated in Pyle's Ogam research in southern West Virginia and endorsed the West Virginia petroglyphs as authentic archaic Ogam. The Grants were former students at the Catholic University in Washington, DC, under the direction of Dr. Robert Meyer, Celtic professor and linguist for 33 years.
In 1998 and 2000, Pyle traveled to Ireland to investigate Ogam markings. In 2000 Dr. William Grant invited Pyle to participate in a research team that examined the first known Irish Ogam petroglyph panel, located in the remote and rugged mountains of southern Ireland. Ogam has commonly been found on corner edges of tombstones, not on rock formations. The unique Irish petroglyph panel turned out to be larger and more complex, yet the markings were virtually identical to the West Virginia and Kentucky petroglyphs.
Stephen O'Shea, Earl E. Hill, Dr. William Grant, Robert L. Pyle, Breda O'Shea, and Mike Baker. Photo taken in southern Ireland. The expedition was mounted by Dr. William Grant and led by Stephen O'Shea. Michael Baker, a film producer, and crew documented the entire expedition. Five hours of strenuous climbing led to the petroglyph location in a "wedge tomb" where Pyle immediately recognized the similarities between Irish and American petroglyphs. The panel is 8 feet high and 20 feet long, and the markings are textbook examples of the alphabet known as Ogam. Significant features include: (1) the Irish Ogam is identical in form to that found in West Virginia and Manchester, Kentucky; (2) it is identical in form to that found in the Book of Balleymote, which is located in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin; (3) the same types of symbol are identified on artifacts and cliff carvings.

Robert L. Pyle, Archaeologist
Resume and Qualifications


http://www.prehistoricplanet.com/wv/features/petroglyphs/

There are reasons to discredit Columbus, ahem a certain belief in mermaids does it for me. Dare I say more or would it cause mod problems.

CDfm

There are some stories that just won't die and Columbus considered mermaids "not half as beautiful as they are painted.". :eek:




The one on the left answers to the name "Nina".

Columbus mistakes manatees for mermaids

Previous Day January 9 Calendar Next Day
On this day in 1493, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, sailing near the Dominican Republic, sees three "mermaids"--in reality manatees--and describes them as "not half as beautiful as they are painted." Six months earlier, Columbus (1451-1506) set off from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean with the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, hoping to find a western trade route to Asia. Instead, his voyage, the first of four he would make, led him to the Americas, or "New World."
Mermaids, mythical half-female, half-fish creatures, have existed in seafaring cultures at least since the time of the ancient Greeks. Typically depicted as having a woman's head and torso, a fishtail instead of legs and holding a mirror and comb, mermaids live in the ocean and, according to some legends, can take on a human shape and marry mortal men. Mermaids are closely linked to sirens, another folkloric figure, part-woman, part-bird, who live on islands and sing seductive songs to lure sailors to their deaths.
Mermaid sightings by sailors, when they weren't made up, were most likely manatees, dugongs or Steller's sea cows (which became extinct by the 1760s due to over-hunting).



http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/columbus-mistakes-manatees-for-mermaids

Some say that sailors made up the stories of mermaids to hide the truth, that truth being that they occasionally, and after being without the company of a real women for many months whilst at sea, would have intercourse with a manatee or dudoug. I'm not sure I believe this theory either, afterall, there are thousands of stories of shepherds having intercourse with sheep, but they don't go around making up stories of mythical creatures to save their blushes, they just keep quiet about it and hope no one finds out.

http://applevenus.co.uk/

Tabnabs

To add a bit more depth to the thread. I would like to post the link to a site that has records of some Irish seafarers who worked in the British MN (1918-1921). http://www.irishmariners.ie/

If you had any relatives at sea at that time, they may well be listed on this site.

It should also be remembered that Irish men died on unarmed merchant ships in both World Wars. I have been to the memorial in London and saw a number of Irish ships and crew listed there. We also have our own memorial in Dublin

Bill2673

I know feck all about the subject, but i do recall being surprised and impressed to read about the history of Ramelton on the occasion of the All Blacks visit to that town - about the ships crossing regularly from that town to the US and Jamaica in the 1700s and 1800s.

CDfm

Dyflin wrote: »

To add a bit more depth to the thread. I would like to post the link to a site that has records of some Irish seafarers who worked in the British MN (1918-1921). http://www.irishmariners.ie/

Bill2673 wrote: »

I know feck all about the subject, but i do recall being surprised and impressed to read about the history of Ramelton on the occasion of the All Blacks visit to that town - about the ships crossing regularly from that town to the US and Jamaica in the 1700s and 1800s.

It would be great to see a link to that.

I know very little about the subject myself and would really love to know more -which is why I started the tread & dragged in the diverse references that I had come accross but which on their own were interesting footnotes.

We forget that when you had things like the flight of the Earls or that these people lived in a bigger world and traded etc abroad and who were thought enough of in Spain to become part of the establishment. Or that Grace O'Malley was not really a pirate but an educated woman or "Baron" who was defending her terretorial ,political and trading interests.

The werent all "diddly -aye-do" so it didnt just stop with them.

wreckmaster

I saw a picture a few days ago of a small Paddle Steamer in Ramelton , back at the turn of centuary and I know I have records of shipping in and out of there from the 1800s . must have a look .

wreckmaster

The Innishowen at Ramelton I don't have a date.

http://website.lineone.net/~tom_lee/innishowen.htm