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Displaying items by tag: Submarine training vessel

4th August 2011

Tug-of-War to Visit Capital

An unusual visitor to Dublin Port in the form of the large German Navy salvage tug, Fehmarn (A1458) is to make a weekend courtesy call, writes Jehan Ashmore.
The 1,289 gross tonnes Fehmarn (photo) is to arrive in the morning and dock at Ocean Pier. She is one of two Type 720 'Helgoland' class tugs ordered for the German Navy though after the decommissioning of her sister Helgoland, the surviving vessel is referred as the Fehmarn Klasse.

She was built in 1967 by Schichau Seebeck Werft, Bremerhaven and the 68m / 23-ft long auxiliary has a limited armament capability and a crew of 45. Employed as safety ship for the submarine training group, she is also equipped for fire-fighting, icebreaking and wreck location duties. The Kiel registered veteran vessel is named after a German island.

Published in Navy

The Rankin Dinghy of Cobh, Cork Harbour 

A Rankin is a traditional wooden dinghy which was built in Cobh, of which it’s believed there were 80 and of which The Rankin Dinghy Group has traced nearly half. 

The name of the Rankin dinghies is revered in Cork Harbour and particularly in the harbourside town of Cobh.

And the name of one of those boats is linked to the gunboat which fought against the Irish Volunteers during the 1916 Easter Rising and later for the emergent Irish Free State Government against anti-Treaty Forces during the Irish Civil War.

It also links the renowned boat-building Rankin family in Cobh, one of whose members crewed on the gunboat.

Maurice Kidney and Conor English are driving the restoration of the Rankin dinghies in Cork Harbour. They have discovered that Rankins were bought and sailed in several parts of the country.