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Displaying items by tag: Irish ship wreck

Dundalk is where a team of divers from the Isle of Man visited the Co. Louth port town so to bring the bell of the steam ship flagship, S.S. Dundalk back to a grateful town.

As EnergyFM reports, divers of Discover Diving based in Port, St. Mary, on the Manx south coast, were guests of honour of Dundalk’s Louth County Museum.

Artefacts of the Glasgow built flagship of the Dundalk and Newry Steam Packet Company were retrieved from the wreck. They consist the bell and its wrought-iron hanger, a porthole and a washbasin which were handed over to the county museum.

As Afloat previously reported, S.S. Dundalk during WWI was attacked on 14th October, 1918 by a German submarine during a return trip from Liverpool’s Collinwood Dock to Dundalk. The cargo ship's main trade was cattle, produce and also the carriage of passengers. 

The torpedo attack led to the sinking of the 234ft long merchant ship and claimed 21 people. Only 12 survived, some of which were brought to Douglas from the incident that took place just weeks before the end of World War 1 and of the crew, they mostly were local to the Dundalk area.

On the 100th anniversary of the sinking, a committee of descendants of the crew, travelled to the Isle of Man to unveil a memorial clock on the Castletown River waterfront. The clock is in memory to those who tragically lost their lives.

For more,Energy FM reports more on the return of the ship's bell.

Also in the centenary year, Afloat reported of a ceremony held on board the Isle of Man Steam Packet's Mannanan which saw the fast ferry take a special detour to the wreck site some 60 miles offshore.

On the 92nd anniversary, the Dundalk Sub Aqua Club divers carried out a commemorative dive to the wreck site. The divers laid a plaque of remembrance which Dundalk town council had sponsored.

Published in Historic Boats

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.