Disembarkation- Nicky Rossiter (most read books of all time .TXT) 📖

ship that he entered the Black Sea grain trade. His boats 'May Queen' 'Saltee' and 'Hantoon' were principally involved in the Canadian timber trade.

Among the other Devereux ships, which sailed under his own flag of a white D on a blue background, were 'Alert', 'Dispatch', 'Commerce', 'Dart', 'Star', 'Princess' and 'Mary Agnes.'

The log of the brig 'Alert' is printed below.

The Devereux family also owned a large amount of property, particularly on the Wexford seafront. Most of the buildings along Paul Quay and Lower King Street were theirs and co-incidentally another shipping family, the Stafford’s, later owned these. Richard Devereux was a great benefactor of clergy and religious orders and was a strong supporter of education. He introduced a number of teaching orders to Wexford including the Christian Brothers. It is interesting to note that among the subjects taught in their schools were trigonometry and navigation. When Richard Devereux died in 1883 he was worth over a quarter of a million pounds.

Allens

These were brothers, Richard, Maurice and Robert Allen. Their trade extended to four continents from offices near the present North Station. Most of their vessels were built in Canada and they too were involved in the fruit and grain trades, Galatz in Rumania being one of their destinations. Their barque

'Wexford' of 307 tons, bought in 1851 carried emigrants to Savannah or New Orleans, returning with cotton for Liverpool. A captain Codd commanded her.

Other Allen ships were 'Forth', 'Selskar', 'Menapia', 'Esperia', 'Rapid', a schooner 'Annie' skippered by Big Ned Reilly and another called 'Spray' under Jemmy Storey.

Gaffneys

They had offices and a coal yard where Dominic Kiernan now operates an Auctioneering business at Commercial Quay beside Oak's Lane. They had 9 or 10 schooners all carrying coal.

Lambert and Walsh

They were involved mainly in the timber trade with St. John's, Newfoundland, supplying their own timber yard. Among their ships were 'Saltees', 'Jasper' (named after Jasper Walsh), captained by a Clancy and

'Antelope' the last ship to be built at Wexford Dockyard. They owned the dockyard at the time.

Redmonds

The Redmond family were not great ship owners but were involved in land reclamation in Wexford Harbour and it was they who opened the dockyard at Trinity Street where a number of Wexford vessels were built.

Apart from the major shipping families, there were a number of people, usually ships masters who owned single vessels. These men usually spent a lifetime sailing 'deep-sea' and used their savings in later life to purchase a ship of their own to ply the coastal or cross channel routes.

Among such owner-operators were these master mariners:

Edward English who owned 'Lerwick' from 1856, he sold her to Laurence English, also a master mariner.

John Hore of Wexford who owned 'Lawshipping'.

Patrick Quirk registered 'June' in 1848 and later sold her to Robert Sparrow, shipbuilder of Wexford.

'Criterion' was co-owned by James Hughes, master mariner, with four other people including a Mary Dalaou. He also co-owned 'Charlotte', which was later sold to Richard Devereux.

John and James Carr, both master mariners, shared ownership of 'Swift' with John Cullen. The shares passed to each mans wife upon their deaths so that by 1862 the ship was owned by Margaret and Mary Carr and Mary Cullen.

'Wave' was owned by John Murphy, master mariner, and John Barrington, merchant, in 1837.

An interesting ownership of the time concerned three ships, 'Rambler', 'Atlas' and 'Lucinda Jane'. Rev.

George Whitty, C.C. of Castlebridge, wholly or partly owned all three. Laurence Kirwan next owned all three also a C.C. The 'Atlas' and 'Lucinda Jane' later appear registered to Michael Warren, Bishop.

Another interesting registration is that of 'Hope' owned by John Thomas Devereux in 1836. She later passed to James Patrick Devereux and then to John Smithwicks of Kilkenny.

Other Wexford owners included Captain Morris of Monck Street who had a small schooner called the

'Jane Hughes’, which traded mainly to North Wales carrying slates. Captain Morris later retired from the sea to open a public house in Monck Street and to build Leinster Terrace in King Street.

The Hutchinson brothers of Henrietta Street owned the 'Reliance'.

Jem Murphy owned a ship called the 'Economist', so called because it was designed to require no ballast thus reducing its running costs. Murphy was also a publican and owned what was later to become The Shamrock Bar in Anne Street, a pub much favoured by seafarers.

Tommy Morris from Carrigeen owned a small schooner named the 'Alice T.'

Larry Murphy from William Street was another owner/skipper. His vessel was called the 'Express'. It was lost off the Arklow Bank and Larry, his brother Johnny and Myles Furlong died in the tragic incident.

Life at Sea

From the recollections of Captain Richard Delaney, expertly related by his son Seamus in the pages of

'The Past' we may obtain a vivid picture of the life of a sailor in days gone by.

The first step to a career at sea involved shipping as a First Boy. He worked mostly in the galley but was called to assist almost any other crewmember. Although not officially put on watch he often assisted others on their duty and thus earned experience. He spent two years at sea before becoming Second Boy

, which saw him, taking his place on deck, having a watch and performing all the duties of a sailor. After a further two years he became an A.B. or Able-bodied Seaman.

The wages per month on a Wexford schooner by the late 1800's were.

Master

£4-10-0,

Mate

£3-15-0,

A.B.

£3-10-0.

Second Boy

£1-0-0

First Boy

15-0.

While at sea, the crew were fed by the company and provisions varied according to the generosity of the owners or the mood of the skipper.

Devereux's ships were usually very well stocked with barrow loads of pork and beef available from their own farm at Ballynagee. This was stored on board in large casks of pickle.

A typical menu consisted of:

Breakfast: Cold meat from the previous day, tea and ships biscuits (a kind of thick, hard,