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A Showcase of Articles, published here

A Riddle of Sand – The Kish Bank

A Riddle of Sand – The Kish Bank

Click here for full article The Kish Bank is a sandbank, or a set of sandbanks, off the east coast of Ireland. This study discusses how, the Kish Bank, got its name.

Apostleship of the Sea (Stella Maris)

Apostleship of the Sea (Stella Maris)

Click here for full article The Apostleship of the Sea (affectionately known as Stella Maris to seafarers in approximately 60 countries (many with multiple ports) by Rose Kearney

Audacious Secret

Audacious Secret

Click here for full article World War 1 was declared on 5 August 1914. On 27 October 1914, disaster befell the Royal Navy. HMS Audacious, a modern "state-of-the-art" super-dreadnought battleship, struck a mine and sank. This embarrassment would have been immense and could have been pivotal to their fortunes only weeks into WW1. It would have been very demoralising to the British public to admit the loss of such a vessel. It remained a secret until the end of the war

Battle of the Piers

Battle of the Piers

Click here for full article This article reviews the rivalry between two engineers on building the pier in Dún Laoghaire harbour. It continues to describe current rivalry, and future hopes.

Captain Hutchison

Captain Hutchison

Click here for full article Captain William Hutchison (1793-1881): the first Harbourmaster of Kingstown 1817-1874; Coxswain of the Dublin port lifeboat based at Sandycove; Ex Lieutenant in RN; Inspector of Bulloch Quarries; Pilot Master Port of Dublin; Justice of the Peace.

Coastguard Lifesaving Carts

Coastguard Lifesaving Carts

Click here for full article The Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners Royal Benevolent Society A rope thrown from the shore was a useful tool, and a pulley system – later known as a ‘breeches buoy’ – could be set up to ferry people to safety. However,…

Concrete Ships

Concrete Ships

Click here for full article Irish shipyards Warrenpoint – Concrete ships Cretefield During the First world war a shortage of steel developed as replacements were being built for the huge tonnage sunk by submarines. Steel was prioritised for construction of warships. Late in the war…

Crescent City – Mexican Silver Dollars

Crescent City – Mexican Silver Dollars

Click here for full article Mexican Silver Dollars at Galley Head, recovered from the cargo of the Crescent City

Demeray: Treasure Ship

Demeray: Treasure Ship

Click here for full article “The two barren islets are best remembered as the scene of the several shipwrecks. Here in 1819 the Demerary carrying gold bullion was wrecked and sank. One of her passengers, a Scotsman named Hugh Monro Robertson and sixteen members of the crew were washed ashore at Cullenstown and buried in the ancient graveyard in the Cill Park near Cullenstown Castle. Monroe’s is the only tombstone there now as one of the pillars from the memorial over the sailors’ grave was used as a weight on a harrow by a local farmer. To this day it is said that traces of gold dust from the Demerary’s strong room are found on the sand of the Keeraghs”

Diving on the Lusitania

Diving on the Lusitania

Click here for full article Diving on the Lusitania from Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast

Drevar’s Gold & Wellington Pennies

Drevar’s Gold & Wellington Pennies

Click here for full article Another story of a treasure ship, lost off the Irish coast

Dublin Port Diving Bell

Dublin Port Diving Bell

Click here for full article Engineering by Cormac F. Lowth This article was first published in The International Journal of Diving History, Volume 3, Number 1, July 2010 The restored bell In the nineteenth century, several factors combined, which both facilitated and necessitated the expansion…

Dublin Shipyards

Dublin Shipyards

Click here for full article Irish Shipbuilding Miscellaneous Dublin yards While the main shipbuilding in Dublin Involved the Liffey yard, later Vickers, and Ross & Walpole several early years have disappeared without trace.

Early Irish Free State Naval Activity

Early Irish Free State Naval Activity

Click here for full article Eddie Bourke Dainty The early years of the Irish Free State from January 1922 were a time of turmoil after the war of Independence ceased with the Truce in July 1921. The British army commenced their withdrawal and the Free…

Fethard Lifeboat Disaster.

Fethard Lifeboat Disaster.

Click here for full article need to transcribe ?

Folia

Folia

Click here for full article The SS Folia is a popular dive site off the Waterford coast. Here we learn the story of this once gracious passenger liner

Francis Beaufort (Wind Scale)

Francis Beaufort (Wind Scale)

Click here for full article We are all used to hearing weather forecasts on radio or television predicting ‘Wind Force So-and- So’. How many realise that the inventor of the Wind-Scale was born and brought up in Ireland, and did here some of the scientific experiments which place him among the greatest contributors anywhere at any time to the development of the marine sciences?

From Havana to Skibereen (Piet Hein)

From Havana to Skibereen (Piet Hein)

Click here for full article "The bones of the treasure ship Santa Anna Maria lie strewn in forty feet of water on a rocky headland off Reen point in Castlehaven. Her oak keel and planking are largely intact" - read the story from the age of discovery and colonization of kingdoms of the new world.

G2, the coast-watching service and the Battle of the Atlantic

G2, the coast-watching service and the Battle of the Atlantic

Click here for full article This paper is an early version of the introduction to the Guarding Neutral Ireland: the coastwatching service and military intelligence 1939-45 (Four Courts Press, 2008)

Guardships at Kingstown

Guardships at Kingstown

Click here for full article GUARD-SHIPS AT KINGSTOWN By Cormac F. Lowth Shortly after the completion of Kingstown Harbour in the early 1820s, it became a convenient and preferred haven for elements of the British Royal Navy. It was a regular port of call for…

Historical Diving in Ireland

Historical Diving in Ireland

Click here for full article While there were few diving inventors or innovators in Ireland, it is remarkable that many of the early diving pioneers worked around the Irish coast. Local entrepreneurs and salvors were quick to exploit the invention of the helmet in the early 19th century and rapidly took on salvage work on their own account.

HMS A5 (Forgotten Submariners) Lost at Cobh

HMS A5 (Forgotten Submariners) Lost at Cobh

Click here for full article on 13 February 1905. H M Submarine A5 was in the Haulbowline Naval Base, Queenstown,(now Cobh), Co Cork. There was an explosion while her petrol engine was being refueled. The dead were buried in the Old Church Cemetery. The five graves were neglected and overgrown with moss such that the headstones could not be read. In 1999, Chief Petty Officer Owen O'Keeffe of the Irish Naval Service initiated their restoration

Hobblers – who were they?

Hobblers – who were they?

Click here for full article More than seven decades after their dangerous enterprise came to an end Dun Laoghaire families with close links to the sea gathered in late September to honour the hobblers. “The who? ” asked one local teenager when told by a friend that he intended to be present at the dedication in Dun Laoghaire harbour of a compelling monument to the men who years ago guided ships to harbour before the arrival of the Dublin Port pilots.

Ireland’s Mercantile Marine during the Second World War

Ireland’s Mercantile Marine during the Second World War

Click here for full article An earlier version of this article was donated to Wikipedia The Irish Mercantile Marine during World War II continued essential overseas trade during the conflict, a period referred to as “The Long Watch” by Irish mariners. Irish merchant shipping ensured…

Irish Poplar

Irish Poplar

Click here for full article The story of the fist ship acquired by Irish Shipping

Irish Willow

Irish Willow

Click here for full article On 16 March 1942, U-753 stopped the Irish Willow, While they waited on instructions from Berlin, whether or not to sink her, they shared schnapps to honour St Patrick

Irish WWII Losses

Irish WWII Losses

Click here for full article How Ireland´s Mercantile Marine fared during WWII by Frank Forde, author of "The Long Watch", the standard work on this subject

ISL and Lemass

ISL and Lemass

Click here for full article This article has been written to give people a sense of conditions in Ireland during the early years of the “Emergency” which existed in Ireland from 1939, and the urgent need for shipping which brought about the formation of Irish Shipping Ltd. In condensing a journal of 200 close typewritten pages much detail can be lost but I have taken great pains to reproduce each commodity named so you will understand where the most want occurred. I have learned great respect for the Minister, his Department, the officials of Irish Shipping, their Officers and Crew many of whom paid the ultimate price, with their lives, so we would have the necessities of life in a very turbulent time for our young Nation and the World. - Joe Ryan, 19th March 2016.

Italian Salvage Ships at the Galley Head

Italian Salvage Ships at the Galley Head

Click here for full article Paddy O'Sullivan traces the history of the Italian salvage company, Sorima, and describes its successful Ludgate operation off the Galley Head in 1934-35.

John DeLap – Imperial Russian Navy

John DeLap – Imperial Russian Navy

Click here for full article John DeLap of the Imperial Russian Navy, credited with saving the life of Peter the Great

John Philip Holland (Submarines)

John Philip Holland (Submarines)

Click here for full article need to check

John Richardson Wigham

John Richardson Wigham

Click here for full article A great inventor and businessman. Actually born in Scotland, he was accused of being Irish, which he never denied. When he was 15 years old he left Scotland for Dublin to start his apprenticeship. Despite prejudice he was very successful

Lady Nelson

Lady Nelson

Click here for full article On 14th October 1809, The Lady Nelson, Captain Bernard Wade, was shipwrecked on a voyage from Oporto to Liverpool, off the Skelligs, Co. Kerry. The 200 tonne vessel contained a cargo of wine and fruit. 25 souls perished in the disaster.

The SS Shamrock - a story from the Emergency - ahem - I mean World War Two - and every word is true - click here for the SS Shamrock story

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