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1Mar
‘Crosses of the Fallen’ Image, Courtesy of Fionbarr Moore, National Monuments Services. Facebook 2017. In the 16th century, the Spanish monarchy, part of the Habsburg Empire, largely Catholic, with its spiritual leader in Rome, assembled the largest naval and military invasion force ever seen in Europe at the time. Its purpose was to […]
12Nov
In chronological order, this shipwreck story has its genesis in Norway, when a timber built steamer slid down the ways in the chocolate box town, Tvedestrand, 1920, as, DS Bjornvik. Her name was changed the same year to Hill, and she operated in Scandinavian waters and the North Sea until 1940. Cutting a lot […]
6Apr
A treasure, presently of inestimable value, was recovered from a shipwreck at the Greek island, Antikythera, NW of the island, Crete, in 1901. This small island is strategically located across the route from the Aegean Sea into the Western Mediterranean and known to have been the haunt of pirates for centuries. This remarkable find takes […]
9Nov
‘Render Unto Caesar…’ The Christian Bible is clear – citizens must pay their taxes, just or unjust. Dogma is one thing, in practice, evading punitive taxes has been with us since the earliest success of both. Free-trading, free of taxes, comes in many guises today and is constantly responding to market […]
18Oct
By any comparison, Victorian hay-day of sail or today’s modern giants of the seas, the sailing barque, Bay of Bengal, three-masted, 260 feet long, built of ‘Government standard, best, best best iron’, to beyond Lloyd’s highest specification, was a large ship. Launched from the Fairfield Yard at Govan on the Clyde by the respected shipbuilder, […]
12Nov
At 2.30 PM, Sunday, September 7, 1845, a large public meeting was convened at Kingstown [Note 1.], on the property of builder, James Nugent. The topic was Repeal of the Union, and a large crowd with a number of celebrated speakers attended. Among them was the colourful emancipationist, Thomas Steele, who stirred the crowd with […]
20Aug
A Tale of Shipwreck and Lost Treasure The Banks Many will be aware, and unfortunately for some, they will also remember only too well, how Banks can ‘fail’. The term is of course not an honest assessment of events when due governance and propriety are recklessly abandoned in favour of greed. Terms like ‘maximising […]
12Apr
An account of the harrowing loss of the emigrant ship, Pomona, 1859 ‘Arranged side by side, they lay locked in the sleep of death, and the lifeless, which a few hours past were lighted up with life and animation, had become sickening objects, from which the heart recoiled…the eyes seemed directed to that haven […]
9Aug
‘The Most Abandoned Villains of Wexford’ Some say it’s the deep sounding whoosh from the revolving blades of the enormous turbines at Carnsore Point, in county Wexford. But when they rest, others will offer; it’s the confusion of winds that can blow around this large expanse of low lands, a place of prolonged periods of […]
8Aug
When is a Wreck not a Wreck? An answer seems easy, but not always obvious. A ship that has been wrecked might be raised and then float again. It might sink again, immediately, or soon after – and declared a wreck once more. It may be repaired, and live out many more years afloat. Alternatively, […]
