Sailing Trawlers of Dublin’s Ringsend Attract Increasing Interest

25th June 2026

WM Nixon

Ringsend’s Brixham-style trawlers drying sails in their anchorage in the River Liffey. In time, most of the larger vessels became ketch-rigged for ease of handling by smaller crews Credit: Courtesy Cormac Lowth

The fishing industry link between Brixham and Ringsend thrived between 1815 and 1919, so much so that in time the largest of the highly-regarded Brixham-style sailing trawlers was the St Patrick - built, fished and managed by the Murphy family of Ringsend.

The seaworthiness and sailing speed of these vessels was such that builders such as Dewdney on the River Dart in Devon, and Murphy’s Boatyard in Ringsend in Dublin, were commissioned to build seagoing cruising yachts based on the trawler form. One of the most interesting was the 60ft cutter-rigged Chotah, built by Dewdney in 1891, and in time owned by the renowned medical man Sir Thomas Myles, a leading member of the Royal Irish YC who became President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

The Murphy family’s St Patrick, built in their boatyard in Ringsend, was the largest vessel of the brixham trawler type

AUXILIARY ENGINE

In 1913, Chotah achieved something of a first by being fitted with an auxiliary engine, a Bolinder diesel. As Myles was strongly sympathetic to the Home Rule movement as manifested through Erskine Childers and Conor O’Brien, in 1914 the July gun-running of the Irish Volunteers to Howth, and Kilcoole in Wicklow, saw Thomas Myles and Chotah being signed up to take over the second consignment of guns in support of Erskine Childers’ Asgard, brought from the North Sea by Conor O’Brien in his ketch Kelpie.

Sir Thomas Myles, President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, was an enthusiast for cruising the yacht version of the Ringsend trawler type.

BEACH LANDING

Those guns were transferred to Chotah in the lee of St Tudwal’s island on the Welsh coast, as it was felt that that the ultimately successful Kicoole beach landing of the cargo would be greatly aided by the option of Chotah’s auxiliary for close manoeuvring off the steep-to Wicklow beach, and the operation was ultimately a complete success.

Maritime historian Cormac Lowth has made something of a speciality of the Ringsend trawlers among his many meticulously-researched sea studies, and on Thursday July 2nd at 8.0pm in the Community Hall in Ringsend, he is giving the latest edition of his popular lecture on the subject. All are welcome, but so too is a donation to the lifeboat.

Sailing Trawlers of Dublin’s Ringsend Lecture

Published in River Liffey, Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club, Historic Boats

Published in River Liffey

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About The Author

WM Nixon

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William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland for many years in print and online, and his work has appeared internationally in magazines and books. His own experience ranges from club sailing to international offshore events, and he has cruised extensively under sail, often in his own boats which have ranged in size from an 11ft dinghy to a 35ft cruiser-racer. He has also been involved in the administration of several sailing organisations.

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