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Displaying items by tag: Lady Grania

#INLAND WATERWAYS - As Derek Evans writes in The Irish Times, the recent discovery of the first Guinness merchant vessel - sunk a century ago by a German torpedo in the Irish Sea - rekindled memories of the brewery's boats on the Liffey in the 1950s.

He writes: "Living close to Stoneybatter, I often took time to stand on Queen Street Bridge as the barges, filled with Guinness barrels, slowly made their way from James’s Gate to Sir John Rogerson’s Quay.

"I remember clearly the skipper standing beside the open wheelhouse in his navy blue polo-neck jumper, captain’s hat and pipe... The skipper always had a smile and a wave before he would disappear for a few moments under the white cloud."

He also recalls the hoisting of the barrells at Butt Bridge onto the Guinness cargo vessels - like the WM Barkley, the Lady Grania or Gwendolen Guinness - for transport to Liverpool.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the wreck of the WM Barkley was captured in high-resolution images taken from the national research vessel RV Celtic Voyager off the coast of Dublin.

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

Published in Inland Waterways

About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation 

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour

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