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Historic Boats
Man of the West – Dr Mick Brogan
Dr Mick Brogan is very much at home in the west of Ireland, with his life as a country GP in Mayo neatly balancing his life as a traditional boat sailor, home-ported in Kinvara. In fact, he is so much…
Maritime Heritage in the North welcomed a boost for the Cherbourg registered SS Nomadic and Titanic Belfast with Covid Recovery Grants. The tender occupies the oldest Queen's Island dry dock, Hamilton Dock, (built 1864-1867). AFLOAT adds what about the scene in the south? and our historic maritime infrastructure? notably Dublin's Grand Canal Dock Basin's (older) graving dry-docks (1790's) as Waterways Ireland plan to sell (see link below 'Inland Waterways' story, 20th Feb). At the dry-dock for 'safekeeping' is the former Aran Islands ferry Naomh Éanna, a rare survivor of an Irish built 'ship! aptly constructed in the capital.
The tender that served RMS Titanic at Cherbourg, France, which forms part of the liner's visitor attraction centre in Belfast Harbour, have both received £1.63m from a total £5m plus funding from the UK's Heritage Recovery Fund, writes Jehan Ashmore.…
Shackleton's ship Endurance embedded in the Antarctic ice of the Weddell Sea – one of Frank Hurley's remarkable photos which have done so much to immortalise an extraordinary expedition.
In almost every crisis or period of exceptional and continuing difficulty - such as we're living through now - people will hope to relate to the ultimately successful example of survival to be found in the experiences of Polar explorer…
Men of the High Latitudes – Jarlath Cunnane and Mick Brogan with Northabout at Westport Quay in their return from circling the Arctic. Their current mission is ensuring proper recognition for Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton's Scottish ship's carpenter Harry McNish
When Afloat.ie's Shipping Correspondent Jehan Ashmore scooped all other media last week with the revelation that the new Irish Research Vessel will be named Tom Crean, the wave of warmth and sheer goodwill which greeted the news was remarkable. For…
A diver with a bottle from the Irish Sailing Ship 'Providentz' that sank in Norway in 1720
Norwegian divers have discovered a 300-year-old shipwreck of an Irish sailing ship on the sea bottom outside Mandal in Southern Norway. The Irish ship, named "The Providentz", sunk in November 1720. It is reported by the Norwegian NRK journalist, Siv Kristin…
The Dublin Bay 21 Naneen on her first sail after restoration, slipping effortlessly along on the Shannon Estuary off Kilrush
The continuing restoration of the Dublin Bay 21 class of 1902, in the longterm project guided by Hal Sisk and Fionan de Barra of Dun Laoghaire, has seen the work of Master Shipwright Stephen Morris of Kilrush and his team…
Christmas Eve, 1895, and the Dublin Bay lifeboat has capsized with tragic loss of life whole trying to reach the wrecked sailing ship Palme.
If you think that life is tough under the current pandemic, then the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association has just the thing to put current national and personal problems into perspective, with a comprehensively illustrated Zoom talk by noted maritime…
100-Year-Old River Class History is Published
John McVea, class captain of the now 100-year-old River Class which sails regularly at Strangford Lough Yacht Club, had been looking forward to a 2020 season of centenary celebrations. Covid 19 put paid to that, but one achievement which has…
"She stopped time for everyone around". So said photographer Teddy Murphy as he recorded the characterful Limerick trading ketch Ilen when she came through Dalkey Sound in a flash of sunlight on the afternoon of December 7th for a busy two weeks visit to Dublin
In Greek mythology, at the Winter Solstice, there is a brief calm for the Halcyon Day, and this was the experience of the crew on the Limerick ketch Ilen as they headed away on Monday evening, after a busy two…
Putting on the cloth on the shortest day of the year – Ilen’s headsails being hanked on at Poolbeg Y&BC in Dublln this afternoon
The great Captain Cook may have voyaged to the Pacific in 1769 for the astronomical purpose of observing the Transit of Venus from Tahiti. But tonight (Monday) the crew of the Limerick ketch Ilen have a more modest hope -…
Explorer and writer Tim Severin was a longtime resident of West Cork
A famed adventurer who crossed the Atlantic by currach in a journey inspired by the story of Brendan the Navigator has died at the age of 80, as RTÉ News reports. Tim Severin set out in 1976 on the epic…
The remains of the large, wooden vessel on Streedagh Strand in Sligo,known locally as the ‘Butter Boat”, and now identified as a 1770 shipwreck named Greyhound which claimed 20 lives. One man - a Mr Williams ‘from Erris’ - was recorded as surviving the wrecking
The National Monuments Service says it has resolved the mystery of a shipwreck off Co Sligo's Streedagh strand where three Armada ships are known to have foundered in 1588. Research has confirmed that a wreck of a vessel off Streedagh…
A still from Crann, directed by Laura Hilliard
A replica of an ancient currach has been set alight in the shadow of Skellig Michael — and all in the name of art. The arresting image is one of the highlights of Crann, a film directed by Laura Hilliard…
The replica logboat was modelled on the sunken boat that measures some 7.5m long, 0.61m wide and 0.4m deep.
An oak tree’s transformation from trunk to replica iron age boat on Connemara's Lough Corrib has been filmed as part of a University College Cork (UCC) project. Entitled "A New Logboat for Lough Corrib: The Pallasboy Project", the film was…
Ships that pass as history is being made. With the final stages of Brexit negotiations in the balance, the Limerick Trading Ketch Ilen is recorded by RTE News coming up Dublin's River Liffey as the cross-channel ferry Clipper Pennant heads out for a UK port, still under minimal customs regulation. With Ilen making for a berth at Poolbeg Marina, she has been instructed to hold to the south side of the Dublin Port Channel
The Limerick ambassadorial ketch Ilen arrived on the Liffey River at Dublin in the late hours of Sunday after a fast passage, and since then has been out daily from Poolbeg Y & BC's marina on Dublin Bay with a…
The Ilen on port tack crossing Dublin Bay
The unmistakable sight of the traditional ketch Ilen as she crosses Dublin Bay today  (Monday, December 7th). The restored vessel is on a 'Sailing into Wellness' programme on the capitals' waters this week, working with organisations Coolmine, Tiglin and @tolkariver The…