Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Rum Sodomy & the Lash - Irish Maritime Times & Lore
Options
Comments
-
I was trying to work out where to take this thread and there are a lot of holes in our knowledge.
Riamfada the Archaelogy Mod sent me this link to an excavation of a trading vessel in Drogheda
There are some pics are here tooDay 14 – The Drogheda Boat July 22, 2010, 9:53 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized
The weather was dry on the site this morning and good progress was made in all the cuttings. After lunch the team had a treat in store for them; a visit to the Drogheda Boat. This boat dates from the 16th century and is perhaps the first archaeological excavation of a shipwreck in Ireland. Holger Schweitzer told us about the initial discovery, how each piece of timber was recorded and the model he has produced from the excavation and analysis. This work was undertaken by the Underwater Archaeology Unit of the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The team got to see the remains of the actual boat and a dugout canoe recently discovered in the Boyne River.
http://bective.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/day-14-%E2%80%93-the-drogheda-boat/
The Vikings developed a lot of ports for trade etc but the Irish had boats too.
Dublin also was part of the Kingdom of the Isles for a while when under Viking control.
Anyway, here is a Map of Ireland from the 16th Century.
Before Ireland was totally under English control you had trading etc.So where were the ports and who controlled them.
The sea was also important to the Flight of the Earls - they had regular contact abroad.
In 1649 Wexford had c 40 "privateers" operating from it.
So who controlled it and what kinds of ships did they have.
Even after the English took control you had trading and smuggling.The Siege of Derry, for example, saw the Williamites funded by London Merchants -somewhat reminiscent of the East India Company.
Dont forget, customs duties were a key source of Government Revenue.
A big factor was the taxation revenue and rights to trade.
Shipping was also important for transportation and emigration.
Dublins Custom House of 1791was Dublins first public building
Ireland also contributed its fair share of Naval CommandersThe Custom House is often considered architecturally the most important building in Dublin and is sited on the river front with Beresford Place to the rear. The Custom House was the first major public building built in Dublin as an isolated structure with four monumental façades. The previous Custom House by Thomas Burgh and built in 1707 was sited up river at Essex Quay and was judged as unsafe just seventy years later. The site chosen for the new Custom House met with much opposition from city merchants who feared that its move down river would lessen the value of their properties while making the property owners to the east wealthier.
The decision to built further down river was forced by the Rt. Hon. John Beresford (1738-1805) who was appointed Chief Commissioner from 1780 onwards and was instrumental in bringing James Gandon to Ireland. He favoured shifting the city centre eastwards from the Capel – Parliament Street axis towards a new axis on College Green with Drogheda Street and the construction of a new bridge linking the two sides. The building was built on slob land reclaimed from the estuary of the Liffey when the Wide Streets Commissioners constructed the Quays. The line of the crescent Beresford Place that surrounds the Custom House follows roughly the line of the old North Strand along the estuary before the construction of the Quays.
Started in 1781, the new Custom House was finished ten years later at a cost of over £200,000. The finished external design consisted of four façades each different but consistent and linked by corner pavilions. The exterior of the building is richly adorned with sculptures and coats-of-arms by Thomas Banks, Agnostino Carlini and Edward Smyth who carved a series of sculpted keystones symbolising the rivers of Ireland.
In the Irish Civil War of 1921-1922 the interior of the Custom House was destroyed when the building was completely engulfed by fire lit by the IRA. The fire blazed for five days, destroying a huge quantity of public records. The heat was so intense that the dome melted and the stonework was still cracking because of cooling five months later and Gandon’s interior was completely destroyed.
http://archiseek.com/2010/1791-custom-house-customhouse-quay-dublin/
It is no wonder Nelsons Column was built when you had someone like John Barry and others in the US and other navy's. So who were they and where did they come from.
So Maritime was very important and who was who and what was what.0 -
-
-
-
Dublin Port itself was located up by Wood Quay until circa 1800 and here is a history of the development of the port.
I remember reading somewhere that Dublin was quite a crime ridden place at the time and that Merchants initially did not want to make the move.
Ringsend was a coatal village
The Port
The original Port of Dublin was situated upriver, near the modern Civic Offices at Wood Quay and close to Christchurch Cathedral. The port remained close to that area until the new Custom House opened in the 1790s. In medieval times Dublin shipped cattle hides to Britain and the continent, and the returning ships carried wine, pottery and other goods.
But Dublin Bay presented major dangers for shipping. In 1674 it was described as in its natural state, wild, open and exposed to every wind. Ships frequently had to seek shelter at Clontarf to the north of the city or at Ringsend. In certain wind conditions ships could not reach the city for several weeks at a time. Shipwrecks were common. So in 1716 work began on a bank to protect the south side of the channel at the mouth of the harbour, running from Ringsend to Poolbeg. A committee established by Dublin Corporation that was known as the Ballast Office Committee carried out this work.
The South bank provided only limited protection for shipping and in 1753, after a particularly stormy winter, the bank was replaced with a wall – the South Bull Wall. Bull is another word for strand, and the strands on either side of the mouth of the Liffey were known as North and South Bulls. The Poolbeg Lighthouse at the end of the Bull Wall was lit for the first time on 29 September 1767. It replaced a floating light that had been placed at the end of the wall to warn ships.
To save travel time, passengers and packets of mail landed at the end of the wall, or the Pigeon House, and they were rowed to the city in boats.
Many Dublin merchants were dissatisfied with the running of the port, and in 1786 control of the port was transferred from Dublin Corporation to a new authority-the Ballast Board which was controlled by merchants and properly owners. The Ballast Board was also given control over Dun Leary harbour – modern Dun Laoighaire – and Dalkey Sound. In 1867 the Ballast Board was replaced by the Dublin Port and Docks Board, which continues to run the port to the present day.
Dublin City prospered during the eighteenth century, and trade expanded. Merchants shipped cargos of linen and agricultural produce to Britain and farther afield. Returning ships carried coal and the luxury goods that were in demand in the great Georgian Houses.
By 1800 most of Dublin's trade was to British ports. The shipping channel in Dublin Bay was too shallow for larger vessels, and many ships were forced to unload their cargo at Ringsend onto lighters that could travel upriver.
In 1800 a major survey of Dublin harbour by Captain William Bligh, who is remembered for his role in the mutiny on the HMS Bounty, recommended that the North Bull Wall should be constructed, parallel to the South Bull Wall to prevent sand building up in the mouth of the harbour. He correctly forecast that this would create a natural scouring action that would deepen the river channel. When the North Bull Wall was completed in 1842, sand gradually accumulated along its side until the modern BullIsland emerged.
Until 1800 most trade took place on the south side of the River Liffey, but with the opening of the new Custom House in 1791, port development shifted to the north bank of the river.
The original Custom House Dock opened in 1796. In 1821 it was supplemented by George's Dock, which included large warehouses and storage vaults. These formed part of the Custom House Dock Area. In 1836 construction work began on deep-water berths at the North Wall and this was extended in the 1870's. Further deep-water berths, in the AlexandraBasin opened shortly before World War I and Ocean Pier, to the south-east of AlexandraBasin was completed after World War II. The 1950s brought the first roll-on, roll-off services, and container traffic has increasingly dominated port business since the 1960s. Cargoes have changed in line as the Irish economy has revolved: live cattle have given way to chilled meat; oil is now more important than coal, and the containers carry the products of many of Ireland's high-tech factories.
http://www.ddda.ie/index.jsp?p=629&n=113&a=81
The Customs House itself is a gorgeous building and though built in the late 18th century I often wonder how much of it dates from that period and ,like the GPO what was a rebuild after the 1921 fire.
One of Dublin’s finest 18th-Century buildings, it was almost destroyed during the War for Independence in 1921. However, ships carrying cargoes of dutiable goods, such as wine, tobacco, sugar and tea continued to tie up at the nearby quays. Their cargoes were often stored in warehouses or ’stacks’ attached to the Custom House Dock. In 1840 the building became the Irish headquarters of the Poor Law Commissioners, who carried a major responsibility for relief during the great famine of the 1840s.
In 1872 the Custom House became the headquarters of the Local Government Board or Ireland. The building also housed the Irish Revenue Commissioners. In May 1921, during the Irish War of Independence, the Dublin Brigade of the IRA attacked the building, setting it on fire. They wished to destroy the main tax and local government records as part of their campaign to undermine British administration in Ireland. The fire lasted for five days; all that survived was the shell.
Drunkenness,duelling and public hangings were all part of living in Dublin of the Wine Bottles and that was just the upper classes,
And in the same newspaper: 'Monday se’nnight, Mr. Egan, a reputable citizen, living opposite Bridge Street, in Cook Street, was attacked by a set of villains on the Inn's Quay, opposite that part where the Cloisters formerly were; they took what money he had about him, and two gold chains and seals; nay, gave him a violent blow with a blunderbuss on his head, and abused him otherwise so severely that his life is since despaired of.'
Indeed, even in the day-time pedestrians were not always safe, as we read, still in the same newspaper: The weather these few days past being so remarkably fine, it has tempted the ladies to walk the Circular Road; we therefore caution them not to walk on any part of it that is lonesome; for two ladies, last Tuesday at noon, walking on that part near Donnybrook Road narrowly escaped being robbed by a single footpad, and only for the sudden and fortunate appearance of a gentleman, they certainly would.'
That no lack of severity on the part of the authorities can be held accountable for this prevalence of robberies with violence may be inferred from the following account of an execution at Kilmainham. (The ancient Danish place of execution was Gallows Hills, east of St. Stephen’s Green and south of Lower Baggot Street. A gallows still stood near St. Stephen's Green in 1786, and here the four pirates mentioned shortly, were hanged) 'The execution of five footpads on Saturday last' (25th June 1785) 'was, by an accident, rendered distressing to every person capable of feeling for the misfortunes of their fellow-creatures. In about a minute after the five unhappy criminals were turned off; the temporary gallows fell down, and on its re-erection, it was found necessary to suffer three of the unhappy wretches to remain half-strangled on the ground until the other two underwent the sentence of the law, when they in their turn were tied up and executed.' This extract is a good example of the sentimentalism iii such matters which characterised the period.
Three more executions were carried out at the same place on 26th January 1786. The presence of so much wealth in Dublin, while so many of its inhabitants were destitute, must be held accountable for much of this crime, as we find it noted' in Twiss’s tour that 'footpads, robberies, and highwaymen are seldom heard of except in the vicinity of Dublin.'
In the city, however, scarcely a week seems to have passed in which some burglary or robbery with violence is not chronicled. Such being the condition of the streets, we need scarcely wonder that the roads in the neighbourhood of the city were infested with highwaymen. In a number of the same weekly paper we read: 'The lads of the road were rather unfortunate on Sunday last, and that too on a cruise in which they expected to levy considerable contributions (Donnybrook Road at fair-time), for between the hours of nine and ten, six of them having' stopped a capriole (sic) near Cold blow Lane and called on the gentlemen therein to deliver their money, one of the gentlemen instantly presenting a musket at them they made a precipitate retreat. Their next attack was on a coach, in which unfortunately for them were four Independent Dublin Volunteers, full armed, two of whom, as soon as one of the robbers presented a pistol at the window, jumped out at the other, and after knocking the villains down with the butts of their firelocks, seized them, notwithstanding a desperate resistance, and brought them to town, where after securing five of them for the night, they had them next morning brought before the sitting magistrate, at the Tholsel, and committed to take their trial.'
Indeed, gentlemen belonging to the volunteers often took upon themselves to patrol the streets at night, and thus men of rank might be found discharging the duties now committed to the capable charge of the Metropolitan Police.
That crime was not limited to robberies from houses or from the person is indicated by the frequent arrest of coiners; and in March 1766 four pirates, captured near Dungannon Fort, Waterford, were hanged in St. Stephen's Green, and their bodies suspended in chains on the south wall and afterwards removed to the Muglins, a cluster of small rocks near Dalkey Island.
The dangers of the streets were further added to by the conduct of the 'Bucks' and 'Bloods,' young men of fashion, who founded the notorious 'Hell Fire Club,' the remains of whose clubhouse still form a landmark on the summit of one of the Dublin mountains. They are said to have set fire to the apartment in which they met, and 'endured the flames with incredible obstinacy … in derision … of the threatened torments of a future state.' (Ireland Sixty Years Ago, Dublin, 1851, p.18.)
The conduct of these 'Bloods' may be gauged by the following extract from a contemporary newspaper: 'Three Bloods passing through High Street amused themselves by breaking windows, and on one of the inhabitants complaining of their ill-conduct, they pursued him into his shop, struck him violently, and had the brutality to give his wife a dreadful blow in the face. Two of them were soon obliged to retreat and leave their companion behind, who was lodged in the Black Dog Prison' (Formerly Browne's Castle (Mayor in 1614), converted into an inn, known, from its sign of a talbot or hound, as the Black Dog, and early in the 18th century used as the Marshalsea Prison.)
Many of these ' Bloods' were known as 'sweaters ' and 'pinkindindies'; the former practised 'sweating,' that is, forcing persons to deliver up their arms; the latter cut off. a small portion from the ends of their scabbards, suffering the naked point of the sword to project; with these they prodded or 'pinked' those unoffending passers-by on whom they thought fit to bestow their attentions.
The outrages of these ruffians led to an universal demand for the re-enactment of the 'Chalking Acts.' These Acts imposed extreme penalties on those offenders known as 'chalkers,' who mangled and disfigured persons 'merely with the wanton and wicked intent to disable and disfigure them.' That these provisions were especially directed against young men of the better class is evident from the provision that the offence shall not corrupt the offender's blood, or entail the forfeiture of his property to the prejudice of his wife or relatives.
The practice of wearing swords, then universal with men of rank and fashion, fostered the spirit of aggressive outrage on the peaceable citizens, and is also accountable for the prevalence of duelling, in which the most eminent members of the Bar and Senate commonly engaged. Fitzgibbon, the Attorney-General, afterwards Lord Chancellor and Earl of Clare, fought with Curran, afterwards Master of the Rolls. Scott, afterwards Lord Chief-Justice of the King’s Bench and Earl of Clonmell, had a duel with Lord Tyrawly on a quarrel about his wife, and afterwards met the Earl of Llandaff in an affair concerning his sister.
Nor were the quiet shades of Trinity College free from the practice. The Hon. Hely Hutchinson, when Provost, fought a duel with a Master in Chancery, and his son, following the paternal tradition, fought Lord Mountnorris. In a duel fought on Sunday, 18th November 1787, in the Phoenix Park, the hat of one of the principals was twirled round by his opponent's ball, and the latter received a shot which grazed one of his breast-buttons.
The notorious 'fighting Fitzgerald' made it a practice to stand in the middle of a narrow crossing of a dirty street, so that every chance passenger had either to step into the mud, or jostle him in passing. In the latter event a duel immediately followed. It has been calculated that during the last two decades of the 18th century no less than 300 notable duels were fought.
Both duelling and riotous conduct were greatly fostered by the prevalence of drunkenness, especially amongst the upper classes. Dublin had long had an unenviable notoriety in that respect. An Irish priest, in a Gaelic address to his countrymen from Rome, towards the close of the seventeenth century, styles his native city 'Dublin of the Wine Bottles'.
Winetavern Street is one of the oldest streets of the city; and in the reign of Charles ii., with a population of 4,000 families, there were 1,180 ale-houses and 91 public brew-houses. (Sir William Petty) In 1763 the importation of claret, the fashionable drink of the upper classes, had reached 8,000 tuns, and the bottles alone were estimated at the value of £67,000.
Fathers exhorted their sons to 'make their heads while they were young,' and bottles and glasses were alike constructed with rounded ends, so that the former must perforce be passed from hand to hand, and the latter must be emptied before being set down. The Bar, the Church, the Senate, the Medical profession, even the Bench itself, were alike subject to this degrading excess; and drunkenness was so common, especially amongst the higher grades of society, as to entail no social censure whatsoever.
http://www.chaptersofdublin.com/books/ossory/ossory6.htm0 -
Advertisement
-
-
-
When it comes to Irish Maritime History there are a few issues we dont kind of look at. Here I am more interested in the maritime tradition then the political issues that go with it because we know loads about those.
Emigration and transportation, military, and the administration of the empire.
For example, I know that c 1800 members of my family went to Newfoundland , others migrated to New Orleans and Buenos Aires. As I understand it some left as early as 1770.
A great uncle visted Newfoundland sometime in the 1920's -found it too cold apparently and came home.Irish emigration – the 17th & 18th century
The earliest waves of Irish emigration date to the second half of the 17th century and the aftermath of the Cromwellian era. Most were Catholics. While significant numbers went voluntarily to settle in the West Indies, even more were transported there as slaves. The alternative route, which attracted many from counties Waterford and Wexford, was to Newfoundland.
To the typical Irish Catholic of the 17th and 18th century, the very notion of emigration went against the old Celtic traditions of extended family and clan relationships. To leave your family, and your homeland, was considered an unbearable exile. For this reason, an ambition to find a better life overseas did not trouble the majority of Ireland's population, no matter the poverty they currently lived in or the oppression they suffered as a result of their faith. In any case, where would they go? Catholic immigration to North America was forbidden by law until after the War of Independence. And since most lived on the poverty line (at best), how could they afford to pay for their passage? For most Catholic Irish famiiies, emigration was simply not on the agenda. Those that found the means and chose to sever ties with the old country usually sailed from Cork or Kinsale and small
settlements evolved in Virgina and Maryland.
In the northern counties of Ulster, however, a different attitude held sway with a sizeable proportion of people.
Presbyterians, most of whom had Scottish ancestry, had also suffered discrimination in Ireland but they were not inhibited to the same degree by 'ancestral' connection with the soil. They sincerely believed they would find tolerance, freedom and happiness in North America.
They were also, to varying extents, more economically independent than their Catholic neighbours. Many were artisans, shopkeepers, or young professionals, and some worked in the Irish linen trade. These early waves of Irish emigration were often in response to economic peaks and troughs.
Up to 1720, when New England was the destination of choice for most, the flow was steady but numbers were not large. Numbers rose at the end of that decade and then dropped again.
A famine in the early 1740s saw renewed interest in Atlantic passage, and Irish emigration never really subsided afterwards. In 1771-1773, more than 100 ships left the Ulster ports of Newry, Derry, Belfast, Portrush and Larne, carrying some 32,000 Irish immigrants to America. Meanwhile, a similar number set sail from Dublin, Cork and Waterford alone. Some of these would certainly have been Catholics. By 1790, the USA's Irish immigrant population numbered 447,000 and two-thirds originated from Ulster.
Back in Ireland, the population had grown from only 2.3 million at mid-century to as much as 5 million by 1800. The vast majority lived in poverty.
Irish emigration – the 19th century
Summary: At least 8 million men, women and children emigrated from Ireland between 1801 and 1921. That number is equal to the total population of the island in the fourth decade of the 19th century. The high rate of Irish emigration was unequalled in any other country and reflects both the overseas demand for immigrant labour and the appalling lack of employment and prospects for the average Irish person.
19th-century emigration from Ireland is usually broken down into three distinct phases:- 1815-1845, when 1 million left;
- 1846-1855, when 2.5 million left; and
- 1856-1914 when 4 million departed.
About 80% of Irish immigrants who left their homes in this period were aged between 18 and 30 years old.
As the figures above suggest, Irish emigration levels up to 1847 did not materially reduce the population of Ireland. But in that year, the first after the pototo harvest had failed so spectacularly, the exodus really began. According to figures collated 15 years later, some 215,444 persons emigrated to North America and other British Colonies in that one year alone. This doubled the previous year's figures for Irish emigration.
Between 1841 and March 1851, North America was the most popular destination while some 300,000 went to Australia. Irish emigration direct to New Zealand did not get underway until later. An estimated average of 2,000 people emigrated there between 1871 and 1920.
http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Irish-emigration.html0 -
-
-
Advertisement
-
A very interesting account of wrecks and salvage at this west Waterford Village including salvage and decoration of the Lifeboat Crew by King George in 1911, and the sinking of vessels by submarine in 1917.
Ardmore was really on the trade route.
Perkin Warbeck is reputed to have stayed there in 1497 on his way to persuade Waterford to support him against Henry VIIIArdmore Memory And Story - The Sea
8. Shipwrecks
Previous Page | Next Page
Down through the years, many a good ship met her doom along the coastline from Ardmore. My terms of reference concern the 20th century in Ardmore, but readers will probably be interested in the list of 19th century ship wrecks in the neighbourhood, and also the very interesting account of Perkin Warbeck's engagements.
1823 Hope (a Youghal ship)
1850 Grace of Newcastle
1860 Echo
Peig Thrampton (year unknown)
1865 Certes (of Malta)
1865 Sextus (of Malta)
1875 Scotland
1881 Elizabeth of Whitehaven in Whitingbay
1895 Jeune Austerlitz of Cardiff
1998 Dunvegan.
The above list of ships and the account of Perkin Warbeck's adventures in Waterford are taken from “Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast” 1105-1993 by Edward J. Bourke.
On the 23 July 1497 Perkin Warbeck pretender to the throne of England and Maurice, Earl of Desmond besieged Waterford with 2,400 men. Waterford was held by forces loyal to the king. Eleven ships arrived at Passage East and two landed men at Lombards Weir. One enemy ship was bulged and sunk by the ordnance from Dundory, Warbeck escaped to Cork and there to Kinsale pursued by four ships. He then went to Cornwall, still followed by ships loyal to the throne. A cannon with reinforcing rings typical of the period was dredged from the Suir and is on display in Waterford.
Incidentally, in an account given to the Royal Society of Antiquarians of Ireland by Westropp in 1903, he says “In 1497, Perkin Warbeck, the pretender to the English crown occupied Ardmore Castle and sent thence to summon the city of Waterford to surrender. At Ardmore, he left his wife in safety and marched to besiege the city that refused his claims.” This account is somewhat at variance with the previous one but is nevertheless interesting.
According to the Ardmore Journal 1988, seventeen ships were lost off Ardmore 1914-1918, fourteen of them in 1917. In most of these cases, the attack occurred ten miles or more out at sea and the survivors were picked up and brought elsewhere, so the incidents passed unnoticed in Ardmore. The Folia and the Bandon, however, were quite close inshore when torpedoed.
The wreck of The Teaser on Curragh strand in March 1911 has been well documented. This abbreviated account is based on an article by Donal Walsh in ‘Decie’. September 1982. The Teaser was bound for Killorglin, Co. Kerry with a cargo of coal and left Milford Haven on 16th March. She had a crew of three and all three were lost.
A very strong south-easterly gale had blown up and the boat was blown on to the rocks at Curragh. John O’Brien sighted her at 5am on 18th March, got as close as possible and saw three men on board but could not communicate with them on account of the noise of the storm. He reported to the Ardmore Coastguards and a message was sent by telegraph to the Helvick Life-boat. Three coastguards, Thomas Bate, Richard Barry and Alexander Neal arrived in the meantime with the rocket apparatus. All three men on board the boat had taken to the rigging. Five rockets were fired; some missed but the men on board failed to operate the others which did reach the boat. Coastguards Barry and Neal tried to swim to the ship along the rocket line, but failed in the attempt.
Fr. O’Shea C.C. Ardmore then came into the story. At his instigation a boat was brought from Ardmore by horse and cart and he called for volunteers to go out to the Teaser. Coastguardsmen Barry and Neal, Constable Lawton, William Harris of the Hotel, Patrick Power and Con O’Brien farmers and John O’Brien fisherman answered the call and were able to get alongside the Teaser by hauling themselves along the rocket line and rowing at the same time. Wm. Harris, Constable Lawton and the two coastguards boarded her. The men on board were still alive but only barely and unfortunately they dropped one survivor into the sea while taking him down, but Barry and Neal dived in and rescued him. Fr. O’Shea administered the last rites. The bodies were laid out in Michael Harty’s barn and according to an account by Johnny Larkin, Curragh, two were buried in Ardmore and the Captain’s body brought home to Wales.
The incident got great publicity and on 13th April 1911, the Committee of Management of the R.N.L.I. meeting in London, awarded the Gold Medal of the Institution to Fr. O’Shea and appropriate awards to all the other participants. The Carnegie Hero Fund trust awarded all of them as well, and then on 2nd May 1911, Fr. O’Shea and his party were decorated by King George at Buckingham Palace.
On 12th December 1912, the Marechal de Noailles of Nantes left Glasgow for New Caledonia, a French Penal Island in the South Pacific. She carried a cargo of coal, coke, limestone and railway materials. There was a crew of twenty besides the Captain and First and Second Mates. The beginning of the voyage was eventful with seven days being spend at Greenock waiting for an improvement in the weather; a further seventeen days off Aran Island, Scotland; then venturing down the Irish Sea but about sixty-five miles north of Tuskar having to retrace the voyage, this time to Belfast Lough. At last, they really got going and were a few miles from Ballycotton, when the wind strengthened. They turned about; the Captain fired distress signals; eventually the ship was blown ashore three hundred yards west of Mine Head.
Helvick Lifeboat responded to the distress signals, but could not approach her. The keeper of Mine Head lighthouse, Mr Murphy telephoned the Ardmore Coastguards, and the rocket crew assembled. Coastguards Barry and Neal, J O’Brien, J Mansfield, J McGrath, P Foley, J O’Grady, M Curran, J Quain, P Troy, M Flynn, Con Byron, Sergt Flaherty, Constable Walsh and Fr. O’Shea. As the roads were too bad for the rocket wagon to travel, the crew carried the apparatus fourteen miles on foot to the wreck and arrived about 2am. The apparatus was assembled; the first rocket passed over the vessel, but the crew did not know how to deal with it.
Meanwhile, one sailor had been washed overboard and J Quain encountered him at the bottom of the cliff and explained the workings of the rocket apparatus, by sign language. With the aid of a megaphone, he instructed the rest of the crew still on the ship how to work the Breeches Buoy, and all the men came ashore.
Four had been injured during the night by flying spars and were unconscious and anointed by Fr. O’Shea. All were eventually taken to Dungarvan. Some months later, Fr. O’Shea had a most appreciative letter from Captain Huet, Morlaix.
No doubt, it was an unforgettable experience for the Ardmore men, tramping for hours in the dead of night with their apparatus which looked as if it wasn’t going to have the desired effect; then the joyful break-through the language barrier and being surrounded by a group of men “quacking like ducks” as one of them put it. So it is not surprising that the name Marechal de Noailles is remembered years afterwards in Ardmore. (The most of this account is taken from the article by Donal Walsh in Decies. September 1982.)
The Nellie Fleming from Youghal figured twice in shipwreck stories. The first Nellie Fleming went aground on Curragh strand in December 1913, having in the mist mistaken their location. The Ardmore coastguards and Youghal and Helvick Lifeboats were in attendance, but the crew hoped to get her off. Finally, when the water gained on the boat, the crew abandoned ship and returned to Youghal by the life-boat. Next morning, the owner came and concluded that the boat was going to be a total wreck and handed her over to Lloyd Agent, Mr Farrell of Youghal.
A group of locals bought the cargo of coal from him and formed a coal company to resell the coal. Jack Crowley with three other lads recalls being sent by his father, the local school master to bring home ¼ ton coal for the school, by donkey and cart. They weren’t upset being at the end of the queue which comprised farmers from Grange and Old Parish coming for the cheap coal. He referred jokingly afterwards to the “Curragh Coal Co-op” as being the first Co-op in Co. Waterford. (This account is condensed from that of James Quain in the Ardmore Journal.)
An interesting fact which emerges from the story of the Teaser and of the Marechal de Noailles was, the crew’s ignorance of the life-saving equipment and how to use it; and also of the fact that people in general were ignorant of the principles of life-saving and resuscitation. A bystander in Curragh has said, at least one of the men was still alive while being brought ashore, but clearly, nobody knew how to deal with the situation and apply artificial respiration.
The Folia (6704 gross tonnage) was sunk off Ram Head in March 1917. Seven of the crew were killed in the explosion; the others took to the life-boats and eventually made their way to Ardmore and reached it as last mass had finished, so there was a large crowd around. The R.I.C. took a roll-call outside the Hotel on Main Street. Many people provided food and clothing and arrangements were made to transport them to Dungarvan, where they were taken that evening in a fleet of cars.
In the Ardmore Journal 1988, James Quain in his account of the incident includes an interesting letter from a member of Dr Foley’s household, Glendysert. “All the people took some of the crew to each house. We had five, three English, one American (the doctor) and one Dane. Some were without boots, all without socks, some without coats and so on. After looking after creature comforts (they were of course without food since the night before, with the exception of the biscuits, with which each boat is provisioned) they were anxious for music, so we put on the gramophone for them. I believe they danced and sang up at the convent. Sr. Aloysius played for them.” The letter-writer also says of the attack on the boat, “When they had taken to the boats, the captain of the submarine who was very courteous, came up to them and told them they were all right and to row into Ardmore, 4½ miles away.”
The article by James Quain goes on to say, “Some months passed before the salvage began to float in. Wooden barrels of oil were picked up by the Receiver of Wrecks and later sold. Sides of ham, loose or in boxes, I cu yard in size came into Ardmore and elsewhere along the coast. Large slabs of tallow about 3 feet by 2 inches thick floated ashore in boxes or single slabs. These were seized by the locals and used for making candles as paraffin oil for lamps was very scarce.
As the Folia is such a large vessel 430ft in length and is located only four miles off Ram Head, it has been dived on many times, although it lies in about 120ft of water. According to Lloyds, the ship was carrying a general cargo, but a large number of brass items has been recovered.
According to the Dungarvan Observer 8th March 1980 “During the Summer of 1977 two salvage vessels ‘Taurus’ of Hamburg and ‘Twyford ‘ of Southampton were working on the lines.......... Recently in Ardmore, divers were seen in the area.......... Divers from Tramore, West Cork and Dungarvan were involved.......... One of the divers Cormac Walsh said they were working as a hobby on another wreck the ‘Counsellor’ which is hundreds of yards away from the Folia and about 130ft deep.
The Bandon (summary from Ardmore Journal 1988). On 12th April 1917, the Bandon sailed from Liverpool for Cork under the command of Captain R.F. Kelly. On the evening of Friday 13th an unlucky day to be at sea, when the ship was off Mine Head, she was struck by a torpedo on the port side and immediately began to sink, with a loss of twenty-eight lives. The four survivors including the captain were in the water for over two hours. Following a message from Mine Head lighthouse, they were rescued by motor launch and taken to Dungarvan. The explosion was heard clearly on shore, and when the smoke had cleared away, the Bandon had disappeared.
The late Johnny Larkin of Curragh wrote his own account. “On the 13th of April 1917, she was sunk 2½ miles south of Mine Head and about four miles from the Curragh shore. I saw her go down in less than half a minute. She was sunk by a submarine, according to the British, but I think the crew did not know what sank her. She went so quick some said she was sunk by a mine or two mines tied to a chain.
The spring of 1947 will long be remembered in Ardmore for its severity. Snow rarely falls here, but that year, the place was absolutely snowed in, with men having to go out and dig trenches in order to let the bread van in.
It was at this period that the S.S. Ary, a ship of 40 tons displacement left Port Talbot , with a cargo of coal for the Railway Company at Waterford. The Captain was an Estonian, Capt. Edward Kolk and the fourteen other crew members were of various nationalities. The weather worsened and the cargo of coal began to shift and in spite of all efforts, the list got worse and the crew had to abandon ship somewhere off the Tuskar Rock. They had no oars, no food or drink in the two life-boats.
When Jan Dorucki, the sole survivor woke from sleep he found himself surrounded by dead men, who had all died from exposure and being frightened, he pushed them all overboard. For two days more, the life-boat drifted on and eventually came ashore on the Old Parish Cliffs. Jan was in a dreadful condition, but somehow he managed to climb the cliff and dragged himself to Hourigans’ farm-yard, where the dog found him at dawn. He was brought in and wrapped in a blanket and eventually brought to Dungarvan Hospital. A point to remember is that people did not have telephones nor motor-cars at this period.
Cait Cunningham who was on duty at the hospital, when he arrived gave a heart-rending account of it to Kevin Gallagher who has had it published in his column in The Dungarvan Observer. He remained in a critical condition for days and eventually had to have both his legs amputated. During his stay the language barrier proved a great obstacle, but Nurse Cunningham says, a Polish officer arrived from England and so did Jan’s father; and a Polish phrase book and dictionary they brought, were a wonderful help. He returned to Poland after twelve months.
Meanwhile, the bodies of Jan’s companions were being washed in along the coast from Ardmore to Knockadoon. Willie Whelan of Ballyquin found a body on the beach; he brought it to Ardmore, where it was identified as being that of a Spaniard and was buried in Ardmore graveyard.
During the course of that week-end, the other eleven bodies were brought to Ardmore. According to the inquest, they all died of exposure. I remember seeing the coffins stacked up outside the Fire Station. Later on, they were buried in one grave in a corner of the graveyard. The funerals began at 2pm and each coffin was brought up in turn, in the hearse provided by Kiely’s of Dungarvan. Rev Fr. O’Byrne P.P. and Rev. Warren, Rector of St. Paul’s said the graveside prayers.
Fifty years later on November 1st 1997 Canon O’Connor of Ardmore and Rev Desmond Warren (nephew of the Rector of fifty years before) presided at prayers at a newly refurbished grave and headstone erected by the people of Ardmore. Donald Lindenburn, whose father George was in the Ary came from Swansea; he had his father’s naval record book; he had seen war duty on the Atlantic and the Pacific, so it was tragic and ironic that he should perish on the short trip across the Channel to Ireland. He placed a family wreath on the grave and so did Jim Spooner from the British Merchant Navy. The service concluded with the lone piper's lament by Mr Michael McCarthy.
Later on in the afternoon, John and Billy Revins took the Welsh visitors out on Ardmore Bay, where another wreath was set afloat to the memory of the fourteen members of the Ary crew. These last paragraphs have all been condensed from Kevin Gallagher's account in the Dungarvan Observer.
The Fee des Ondes a French boat was wrecked in Ardmore in October 1963. It was blown in to Carraig a Phúintín and all efforts of Youghal Life-boat to get her off failed. It was with difficulty, the skipper was persuaded to leave, even though the boat had been holed by the rock and began to take in water.
The Cork Examiner of October 28th 1963 says “Two Frenchmen were rescued by life-boat, and seven crew, one of fifteen years old on his first voyage, by rubber raft in a sea drama, off the beach at Ardmore, Co. Waterford yesterday morning. They were the crew of the 300 ton trawler Fee des Ondes out of Lorient, which went aground in poor visibility just before dawn and which was subsequently severely damaged by rocks and pounding waves.
Youghal life-boat had been launched and life-saving rocket man, Jim Quain, was alerted, raised the alarm and fired the maroon which brought out the full crew. The crew came ashore by rubber dinghy but the Captain P Maletta and his mate E Dantec refused to abandon ship for a considerable time. They were all taken to the village and Mrs Quain provided hot food and clothing. An abiding memory of hers, is, besides the salt water even seeping down the stairs, was the incident of the crew sitting around her dining room table where a cask of Beaujolais from the vessel, containing about twelve bottles or so was ensconced. They asked her for glasses and imbibed the lot without as much as asking her would she like a glass, never mind a bottle. Lloyds later offered to recompense them for their hospitality, but they declined to accept.
http://www.waterfordcountymuseum.org/exhibit/web/Display/article/120/8/
There is a lot of supersticion attached to the sea and here are accounts of phantom boats
.9. Phantom Boats
Previous Page | Next Page
In the Ardmore Journal of 1991, James Quain has a very interesting article on ‘Phantoms of the Sea’.
He tells first of the phantom boat seen by his grand-father Jamsie Quain about 1900. It was winter and he was tilling land out the cliffs when he saw what seemed a ship’s life-boat out to sea with about a dozen men rowing and another steering and he saw them change seats a few times. He called one of the coastguards and they both went back to the cliff. The boat was drawing near and almost below them; the crew looked cold, wet and hungry but strangely did not respond when the two onlookers waved and called. Suddenly, to their amazement, the boat altered course and set out to sea again. It seemed unbelievable, that an exhausted crew could head out from sheltered waters into the open sea.
Jamsie and the coastguard hurried to the pier and got a crew together, including Pat Troy and Maurice Flynn. They got the sail up and soon began to catch up on the boat heading towards Mine Head. They got within almost 200 yards of it but could not get any nearer; they shouted but got no response. Maurice Flynn said “Turn back, Quain, or we’ll all be lost. We’re following dead men”, so they reluctantly did so. The coastguard telephoned Mine Head lighthouse and alerted the rescue services along the coast, but the boat was never seen again.
Jimmie Rooney had the story both from Maurice and Jamsie. They said they were only just off the corner of the head on the return journey, when a sea broke on top of Seán Spán, “a big wave that would drown a liner, Seán Spán is a sunken rock off Ardmore Head, where a Spanish ship was wrecked one time. We often got nets caught there at low spring tide.” Some days later, they heard a large vessel had been lost out at sea, about a week previously.
Jimmie Rooney, Paddy Downey, Mikey Lynch and Jack Farrissey all give graphic accounts of the phantom boat seen in February 1936.
Jimmie and his crew were putting out nets at the Head on a Sunday night when “we saw this vessel bearing down on us from the south-east and thought it was the bailiffs launch coming out from Youghal” and they began pulling in the nets. We waited at Goílín na Rínne but there was no sign of the ship coming round the Head, so after a while, we began to put out the nets again and put Paddy Flynn ashore and we rowed round the Head” but none of us saw anything.
Within a week, a big storm came and the Nellie Fleming was lost.
Paddy Downey with Tom Harty and Johnie Brian from Curragh were out at Faill na Daraí putting out the nets, when they saw what they thought was the Muirchú.
Mikey Lynch and Jack Farrissey were at the Clais under the well, putting out the nets also that Sunday night, when they saw the big boat coming from the Head towards them. They too thought it was the Muirchú and hastily made for the pier, where they met Paddy Downey soaked to the skin, “with his new blue suit destroyed by the salt water”.
Willie Roche from Monatrea tells of the phantom ship that came into Caliso Bay during the Great War. It was near the old Moylan family home down near the beach, and came so close that those watching on shore thought she’d go aground. They could see the naval men in uniform going about the deck. The ship came along by Cabin Point and at Carthy’s Cove disappeared off out. A few days later, the news came that Mike Moylan on HMS Carturian was dead. He is buried in Ardmore graveyard just outside the cathedral at the S.E. corner.
These accounts are condensed from the Ardmore Journal of 1991.
Another maritime ghost story concerns Martin Troys' grandfather from Curragh who was drowned while sailing home from Youghal in 1886. A neighbour, John Corbetts grandfather was digging potatoes at about 10am and saluted Seán Treo as he passed by, but he got no reply from him and reported this at home. It transpires that Seán Treo was dead when his neighbour met him0 -
-
-
Join Date:Posts: 14594
hairy sailor wrote: »Read a book a good few year's ago which i would recommend to anyone with a interest in irish maritime history,think it was called the long watch,cover's the beginning's of the likes of arklow shipping,irish shipping before it was sold out & irish ship's during world war 2 which had some funny stories.unfortunately in the next few decade's there won't be anything left to write about as we lose more & more ship's to flag's of convenience with about half of arklow shippings ship's now dutch & of course irish ferries now flying the cypriout flag,it sadden's me as a merchant seaman.
Sounded like a good read so looked it up
The long watch, the history of the Irish Mercantile Marine in World War Two, Frank Forde
Available in your local library!
I was told that the average age of crew on an Irish Shipping ship was around 26 in the 70s. Some of the stories I heard were fairly typical of crews on all ships though
0 -
Take a vist to www.irishships.com -its choc full of lots of stuff jast as Hairy Sailor says.
Here is just copy of one part of one section and behind each section is a huge amount of detail.
And the links below work0 -
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
The slave ship Amity that sank off Courtmacsherry in 1701
The only survivor was a black slave boy.Planks from the Amity
Amity planks
In December 1701 Dunworley (a few miles from Courtmacsherry) received a surprise visit from a slave ship of the Royal African Company. The ship was named The Amity and was bound for London having departed the Guinea coast in Africa. The Amity was heavily laden with ivory and camm-wood (a red hardwood from the African Padauk tree.) A beam of camm-wood stills serves the role of lintel in supporting a chimney-beast in a local cottage. However, destiny had other plans for the unsuspecting Amity. A series of Atlantic storms blew the ship hopelessly off course and onto a submerged reef in Dunworley Bay. In no time the ship was pounded to pieces on the rocks and its cargo scattered in all directions. All hands were drowned save a black slave boy who somehow made it ashore under ferocious conditions. Folklore gleaned from the late Donal Hegarty of Lehina near Dunworley tells us that the following morning Dunworley’s beach was littered with dead bodies, some were Africans, the remainder were white-skinned.
We do not know how many lost their lives on that fateful night but we can assume around fifty people including captain Phaxton, the average slave-ship engaged a fifty-man crew to work their vessels, Donal Hegarty’s lore gives us an insight into the sectarian attitudes of the day. The African corpses on Dunworley Strand were presumed to be heathens and therefore buried in shallow graves in the sands where they lay. However, white skinned corpses were presumed to be Christians and carted off to be buried in hallowed ground. The broken remains of the Amity were reported to be in two fathoms of water, which no doubt facilitated the recovery of much of her cargo over the following months. The RAC took active steps to recover their goods from the sunken ship. They engaged local man Robert Travers, and two others, Morgan Bernard, and Peter Renue a Cork merchant. Further accounts of the welfare of the slave boy fade from the record. Unfortunately, all correspondence from Travers to the RAC appears to have been lost. The slave boy does not appear to have made it back to London. Did he die of pneumonia as a result of his long immersion in the storm-tossed Atlantic on that fateful night in December 1701? Could he have died as a result of injuries inflicted on him when his ship broke up on the foaming reef? We do not know! Brief snippets from the original RAC letters to Travers suggest that he was somebody of importance to them. On 23 December 1701 the RAC wrote a letter to Peter Renue urging him to:
We require you to take care of the negroe salved from out of the ship and take such attentions as are for our service, let him be supplied with warm clothes and other necessaries and send him to us by the first ship bound for the river Thames
The letter goes on to instruct Travers and Bernard on arrangements for the recovery and transport of salvaged tusks and camm-wood. Another letter to Peter Renue urges him to put recovered ship papers on boat bound for England. On 23 January 1702 the RAC wrote to Peter Renue to confirm that the Amity’s papers had arrived. We have advice the box of writing has arrived at Bristol but not the black, the Company pray great care be taken of him. Yet another letter of 20 January 1702 to a Captain Watson urges:
be sure to bring home carefully a negroe that was miraculously saved out of the Amity
Throughout the Amity saga, it seems the locals were busy spiriting away tusks and camm wood washed up on the shores. The RAC again wrote to their appointed salvors urging them to recover their [imbezled] cargo from the locals. Another letter by the RAC urges legal action against the [embezollers]. Search warrants were proposed to investigate suspected smugglers. Amity tusks can still be seen in some local gardens near Dunworley.
However, they have long since lost their ivory lustre to be replaced with a chalk-like coating. Shaw’s mill in Cork had two Amity tusks assembled cross-sword like and mounted on a wooden plaque in the main office. The RAC ordered Travers to put a watch on the wreck to counteract the ‘embezollers’ the watch was called off in mid August 1702 as it was believed that any future salvage attempts would not be economically viable. However, winter storms in Dunworley threw up glass beads annually on the beach at Dunworley, especially the Yellow Cove. By mid 1850s these curious beads attracted the attention of the Church of Ireland rector and clergyman for St. Mary’s in Shandon, Doctor Neligan, a graduate to T.C.D. Others like Lord Londesborough, a Mr Akerman, secretary of the Society of Antiquarians in London, and Mr. Vaux of the British Museum were also curious. Neligan was a regular visitor to Dunworley as his wife’s relatives who lived in the area. Whenever the opportunity arose Neligan scoured the beach at Dunworley for glass beads. He was ably assisted by hoards of local children whom he bribed with pennies. Best results were obtained by targeting low spring tides and foraging along the gravel at the waterline. Within one year Neligan, an avid collector had accumulated over six-hundred beads. He subsequently gave a talk on the beads to the Cork Cuverian Society and published a booklet on the matter. In his book he enclosed a lithograph of a few beads he assembled necklace style. Despite Neligan’s death in 1887 the Amity story had not yet closed. The restless slave ship was inadvertently plunged centre stage in 1898 as a result of a freak accident in the bay.
On 5th August 1898 the four-masted ship: Ecclefechan, heavily laden with 4,000 tons of corn, was stranded on the rocks inside Bird Island near Dunworley. Despite being badly holed and taking water, tugs managed to tow her off her rocky bed and ashore to Dunworley strand for beaching and repair. Suddenly the bay was a hive of activity. Two Cork corn merchants, T.R.. Holland and John Mulcahy arrived to supervise the unloading of the corn on the crippled ship. The Cobh salvage company of Ensor arrived with their steam tugs and salvage gear. Two helmet divers, the Collins brothers, formed part of the team. Myriads of small boats swarmed around the crippled grain ship to assist in the operation. The Collins brothers did Trojan work to patch and save the Ecclefechen which was re-floated. However, there was much talk in the air by the locals regarding a fabled chest of gold that went down with the Amity. These stories dangled tantalising bait to the Collins brothers and perhaps the Ensor salvage company; it was decided to investigate the sunken slave ship before departing the area. The divers easily found the shipwreck based on accurate information from local fishermen. Twelve cannons were subsequently raised and brought into Cork; two still decorate the front lawn of a stately home in the Cork area. The Collins duo also recovered glass beads, ivory and English silver crowns. Inscriptions on the crowns linked them to the reign of King William and Mary. The chest of gold story most likely belongs in the realm of fable and fantasy, nothing to indicate its existence was found.
The Amity still attracts sports divers during the summer season. However, three hundred-hundred-and-ten years in the open Atlantic has taken its toll on the remains. Its hull is now reduced to a skeletal keelson with broken ribs protruding from its sides; measurements taken in 2003 would indicate a ship of ninety feet in length. Several cannon scattered about the ship are in an advanced state of decay. Two mounds of admiralty-link chain are situated quite near the wreck. However, the chains were abandoned ground tackle dating back to the Ecclefechan salvage and bear no connection to the Amity.
http://www.mariner.ie/history/articles/ships/dunworley0 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
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
I actually found my grandfather on the Irish Mariners site the other day. Quite a long tradition in Rush of serving in the Maritime Navy. They had two rules- Never serve on a fuel tanker if you could help it, even in peace time.
- Try to get a job on a Quaker run ship, they were treated better and the Quakers were known not to take risks such as putting to sea in storms unlike some owners chasing increased profits.
From The Irish Times, May 17, 1945IRISHMAN'S STORY OF "HORROR" CAMPS
The experiences of thirty-two citizen of Eire, all merchant seamen, in an S.S. camp in Germany, where five of them died from starvation or typhus, were described yesterday to an "Irish Times" reporter by William English, of Arklow, one of the thirty-two, who has just arrived in Dublin after his liberation.
He said the camp was at Bremen Farge, outside Bremen, and that the camp commandant - named Schaubecker - a month ago shot sixteen prisoners after announcing that he knew he would be shot or hanged by the Allied armies, and he "would take as many as he could with him."
Mr English saw a naked Belgian prisoner beaten to death with rubber hose for attempting to escape. A Pole was shot in the thigh while trying to escape, and the S.S. guards rubbed salt into the wound and beat him with electric cable. He walked from the end of the camp to the hospital, but a Russian doctor, also a prisoner, was refused permission to attend him, and gangrene set in. The doctor said it would be more merciful to shoot the man. The guard did so. Next morning a French prisoner who refused information was shot.
A Russian prisoner was thrown into the camp refuse heap and Schaubecker forced some of the muck from the heap into his throat with a wire before throwing him back on the heap. He was struck with a rifle butt on the head and killed. His body was left for three days on the heap.
The five citizens of Eire who died in the camp were:
W.H. KNOX, Dun Laoghaire;
Owen CORR, of Rush, Co. Dublin;
Gerald O'HARA, Ballina, Co. Mayo;
Patrick BREEN, Blackwater, Co. Wexford, and
Thomas MURPHY, of Dublin.
IRISH SEGREGATED
Mr. English said that he was a seaman on the Blue Star liner, s.s. Africa Star, and in January, 1941, while they were bound from South America to London, they were intercepted by the German surface raider, Steinmark, which took the liner's crew aboard and then sank her. The men were taken to Bordeaux and sent to Germany to camp Stalag XB, 10B Sandbostel.
The prisoners whose homes were in Eire were segregated and questioned by German intelligence officers and urged to work for Germany. They all refused.
In September, 1941, about fifty Irishmen, all seamen, were taken to Marlag, Nilag Nord, another camp, and thirty-two of them were sent to Bremen Labour Exchange. They were brought to a factory and again refused to work.
Their guards suggested to them that, being Irish, they ought to work against Britain in the war.
They were taken to Hamburg and asked to work on German ships, but again refused, and they were returned to Bremen Farge.
In the camp they worked 12 hours a day, mostly at carrying rail tracks. Russian girls, aged from 16 to 18, were doing the same kind of work. In Bremen Jewish girls of from 15 to 18 worked in demolition squads.
NO PRIVILEGES
Mr. English said that, apart from the effort to get them to work for German, the prisoners from Eire got no special treatment as citizens of a neutral State. They repeatedly wrote to Mr. Warnock when he was Eire's representative in Berlin, but received no answer and did not know if the letters had reached him. On August 18th last, Mr. C.C. Cremin, the new representative of Eire in Berlin, visited them at the camp, and their treatment improved. He made every effort to get them sent home.
After twenty-six months they were put on a train for Flensburg, but were forced back because Allied planes had destroyed a bridge on the route, and a repatriation ship, which they had expected to meet in a Swedish port, sailed without them. They were sent to the camp at Marlag Nilag Nord, which was captured in April by a Guards armoured regiment.
The names of the 27 men, who came out of the camp alive, are:-
William ENGLISH and C. BYRNE, Arklow;
Valentine HARRIS, Pearse House, Dublin;
J.J. MOFFAT, Rosses Point;
Bernard GOULDING, Skibbereen;
Harry CALLAN, Derry;
Noel J. LACEY, Howth;
Richard FLYNN, Tramore;
Thomas COONEY, Wexford;
Edward CONDON, Passage West, Co. Cork;
William KELLY and J.J. RYAN, Waterford;
Patrick REILLY and Patrick KAVANAGH, Wicklow;
I.C. RYAN, Tramore;
T.C. BRYCE, formerly of Clontarf, Dublin, who lived in Australia before the war broke out;
Thomas KING, formerly of Clifden, now living in Newcastle;
Peter LYDON, Tralee;
P.J. O'Brien, Armagh, now of London;
Michael LOWRY, formerly of Galway, domiciled in Scotland;
J. O'BRIEN, of Kinsale, living in Wales;
James GORMAN, Clogher Head;
P.J. O'CONNOR, Carlingford;
Michael O'DWYER, Cork;
Robert ROSEMAN, Bray;
James FURLONG, Wexford, and
William KNOTT, Ringsend, Dublin.0 -
Advertisement
-
Advertisement