Maritime enthusiasts from Arklow have implored Wicklow County Council to help them in their race against the clock to save parts of an historic auxiliary sailing cargo-ship, the last of its type to serve on the Irish Sea.

The local community of enthusiasts say that the De Wadden is the “last Arklow coastal trading vessel under sail” before she’s demolished.

As Afloat prevously reported, the Dutch-built schooner has a long and illustrious association with Arklow, before the three-masted cargo ship became part of the Liverpool Maritime Museum of over several decades. The ship was acquired in 1984 and is preserved in Canning dry-dock, part of the museum’s waterfront on Merseyside based at the Albert Dock. .

De Wadden was slated for deconstruction after the LMM’s search for a new home for the former sail-cargo ship proved fruitless.

The vessel was built by a Dutch yard, Gebr Van Diepen in 1917 for the Netherlands Steamship Company.

After the end of the WWI, De Wadden was sold to Irish owner, Richard Hall of Arklow. For almost 40 years the cargo ship traded on the Irish Sea, carrying cargo in bulk between the Mersey to various Irish ports where at Arklow the cargoship was part of his merchant sail vessel fleet until 1961.

On completion of trading duties, the schooner was sold to have a career in Scotland for use as a leisure charter fishing vessel.

De Wadden however returned to her Irish Sea routes when purchased by the Merseyside Maritime Museum in 1984 and several years later was dry docked to enable a programme of conservation and restoration.

More from Irish Independent.ie on the schooner.