Displaying items by tag: Plassy wreck

12th June 2014

New LED Light on Inisheer and Exhibition of Old Plassy Wreck

#PlassyWreckExhibition- As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Inisheer Lighthouse on the easternmost of the Aran Islands, was installed with a new light emitting diode (LED) light by the Commissioners of Irish Lights (CIL) last month.

The Iighthouse is a highly important Aid to Navigation (AtoN) as this safeguards the considerable traffic between Inisheer and Co. Clare. It also marks the south-eastern end of the Aran Islands and the western side of the southern approach route to Galway Bay.

It stands 34 metres and this is to ensure visibility of the light due to the low-lying nature of the Island. A red sector of the light delineates the potential danger of Finnis Rock lying to the east.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, it was during a passage of the Plassy, a Limerick Steamship Co. owned general cargoship which ran aground in a severe storm off Finnis Rock in 1960.

The wreck of the vessel is of TV 'Father Ted' fame, having featured in the opening credits and is the theme for an exhibition 'Art of Rust – From Rust to Art' which this afternoon opens (from 5pm till 7pm) in the National Maritime Museum of Ireland (NMMI) Dun Laoghaire.

Published in Lighthouses

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Father Ted's Ship: An Exhibition From Art to Rust

#FatherTedShip – To those shipping historians the wreck of the Plassy on Inisheer can be traced to her owners, the Limerick Steamship Company, while to many she is more familiar with her featuring in the opening credits of Father Ted.

What is not deniable between fact and fiction is the passage of time reflected on this shipwreck. The exhibition 'Art of Rust – From Rust to Art' opens in the National Maritime Museum of Ireland (NMMI) next Thursday on 12 June.

The museum invites you to the launch of the event between 5 to 7pm where you can discover new photos by Loïc Couzineau of the wreck of the Plassy. The show which runs to 17 August, unveil its mysteries and secrets of an amazing world full of surprises. For further details in general visit www.mariner.ie

So how did the Plassy get to be where she has been since 1960, with her back broken across grey boulders on the easternmost island of the Aran Islands.

It was during a passage through Galway Bay and a mixed cargo of stained glass, yarn and whiskey, when she was caught is a severe storm. The atrocious weather on 8 March led to her grounding onto Finnis Rock on the east side of the island.

All her crew were rescued from the stricken vessel by islanders using a breeches-buoy.

Published in Boating Fixtures

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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