Disembarkation- by Nicky Rossiter (fiction novels to read .txt) 📕

the winch during unloading. At that time the port was busy with Harry Wilson, George Stafford, two Kinsellas and J.J. Stafford bringing in cargo, mostly coal.

The workers were paid by tonnage, the stevedore getting the payment from the merchant and dividing it among the dockers. The work, he said, was hard but he enjoyed it. There was no such thing as 'wet time', if it rained you worked on. Likewise there was no 'sick benefit,' when a worker was off due to illness his friends 'clubbed' together to provide a few pounds for him.

The hours for a docker could be long, Jimmy remembers working straight 40 hours without so much as a

'lie down.' He also recalls the 'Friso' docking with 48 tons of coal and the skipper seeing the men with buckets and shovels thinking he would be in port for a month. But the dockers set to work and cleared her by 5 o'clock that evening.

Jimmy Mahoney was sad to see the port close in the sixties, not because he lost a job but he could visualise the benefit to Wexford of the Common Market, if the harbour had been improved to take bigger ships. He believes that industrialists would have been beating a path to our door with jobs and factories if we had a port handling large ships in which goods could have been imported and exported.

John Clare

John Michael Clare was another of the Wexford sailors. He served as an ordinary seaman on board the

'Tuskar' at the age of 18 years in 1897. On that vessel he travelled to the British channel ports. As with many of the mariners of Wexford in that era, he was also studying at the time and eventually secured his Masters ticket.

During the 1914-18 war he was torpedoed off Cyprus, but lived to tell the tale. He later captained a ship, based in Hong Kong, sailing the coast of China. He later retired to his homeport where he had a boat built and became engaged in the fishing industry. During the early 30s he felt compelled to put pen to paper and protest to the Free State Government about plans to fill in The Cresent in Wexford. In his letters he pointed out the value of the Crescent as a public waterway and a water station for arrivals and departures.

He, and many other Wexford sailors used the Crescent to moor small boats in which they gained access to their larger vessel at anchor in the bay. In his opinion, the closure would have destroyed a right of way and a 'right of succession.'

The Crescent was saved, but a combination of foreign poaching and the Depression caused Captain Clare to leave Wexford once again and return to the China Sea.

Captain John Michael Clare died suddenly on board his ship in 1936 and was buried in Hong Kong, one of many Wexford seafarers at 'final moorings' in distant lands.

A Newspaper Report

In a Lloyds register dated 1843, Wexford appeared as one of the busiest ports of the United Kingdom. A writer in 'The People' of August 1945 visited a local sailor armed with the list and was rewarded with the following information.

The Lloyds representative or surveyor at Wexford in 1843 was Mark Devereux.

ALICIA a schooner was a vessel of 73 tons captained by Mr. Quirke. A story was told that she was involved in the rescue of the passengers and crew of a Glasgow ship which was lost off the Barrells Rock.

Some time later apparently, the ALICIA was recognised on a trip to Glasgow and the incident recalled.

Local ship merchants raised funds by public subscription and presented a schooner called PANDORA to the Wexford skipper.

The DENIS CARTY was last skippered by Captain Tom Walsh and she later served as a coal hulk in Newport.

The smack, HENRY, owned by Devereuxes, captained by Ambrose Butler sank off the Barrels Rock . .

The schooner, MARIA, sank off Hook Head.

MARIA, MARQUIS OF ELY, MARY (a smack) and the MICHAEL WICKHAM were all laid up off Ferrybank at the end of their useful lives and were broken up by storms and tides.

The schooner, STAR, ended her days in the Cresent. RAMBLER ran ashore in Rosslare Bay and was wrecked. Another schooner, ROVER sank in Llanelly Bay, while Sea Flower was sold on to Dun Laoghaire. SWIFT, another schooner sank in Dundrum Bay while bound from Wexford to Glasgow with a cargo of beans. The TIGER broke her back on the Blackwater Bank and COMMERCE was lost on the Wexford bar.

In 1830 the schooner AUSPICIOUS was built at Bannow. She was owned by J. Morris of Wexford and traded between Waterford and Dublin. NATIVE, of 119 tons was built at Wexford in 1834, she was owned by C. Archer and skippered by Captain Codd.

One Wexford shipyard stood at the present Church Lane car park and another at Kaat's Strand at the bottom of the lane almost opposite Westgate.

Wexford port had 3 vessels named PROVIDENCE, 2 HOPES, 2 MARY and 2 UNION.

The ship WEXFORD was of 254 tons and with a local crew under Captain Patrick Kelly of North Main St., she traded between Wexford, London and Bermuda.

The following were listed in the Lloyds register of 1843:

Active (78 tons), T. Hawse, master; Aimwell (90), J. English, master; Albion (101), brig, T. O'Connor; Alicia (73), T. Walsh; Ann, (313), barque, R. Key; Arctic (52), J. Murphy; Auspicious (55), P. Meyler; Blucher (108), J. Roche; Craysfort (54), R. Kearon; Dart (55), E. Cullen; Denis Carty (89), J. Connors; Favourite, (59), P. Hughes; George (52), J. Doyle; Ponsomby, brig (86), P. Quirke; Gnat (91), G. Morgan; Henry, smack (61), J. Williams; Hope (53), P. Hull; Hope, schooner (66), J. Sheil; Huldah (84), P. King; Intrepid, schooner (74), H. Rowe; Lady Douglas, brig (120), J. Cullen; Lark (96), Hammond; Liberty (65), D. Roach; Liverpool (99), M. Scallan; Marchioness of Wellesley (118), T. Whitty; Maria, schooner (96), J. Roche; Marquis of Ely (71), J. Roche; Mary (63), Devereux, master; Mary Ann (66),