The Irish Willow

The Estonian flag vessel, Otto, was one of three ships from that country which were the subject of High Court proceedings in Dublin by the Russian Government claiming ownership of the vessels because of the occupation of Estonia by Russia. Following the occupation of the three small Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on 22nd July, 1940, Russia had ordered all the shipping owned by the three states to proceed immediately to Russian ports. The ships did not comply and the High Court action was the result of this non-compliance. However, the High Court ruled that the Vice-Consul for Estonia was Trustee for the owners of the ships who were Estonian subjects. The President of the High Court further held that the Vice-Consul and Herbert Martinson, an Estonian subject then resident in Switzerland, were entitled to possession of the ship subject to a charterparty made to Irish Shipping Limited for the duration of the war and for three months thereafter. A charterparty is the somewhat misleading name given to the formal signed agreement between a ship's owner and her charterer whereby the former agrees to hire the ship to the latter subject to the terms and conditions set out in the agreement.

The Otto, a vessel of 3,000 tons deadweight, was built in 1918 at the Toledo Shipbuilding Company's yard in Ohio for the United States Shipping Board as part of their special building programme following American entry into the First World War in 1917. She was originally named Lake Sunapee. The ship came into the ownership of K. Jurnas of Purnu, Estonia in 1940 and, in July of that year, she loaded a cargo of timber at St. John, New Brunswick, for discharge at Cork. She arrived there some weeks later. Irish Shipping Limited began negotiations for her purchase or charter in July, 1941, and she was delivered to company Director, Capt. Alan Gordon, on behalf of Irish Shipping Limited, at Cobh on 6th October, 1941.

Following delivery of the ship at Cobh, she was renamed Irish Willow, ( Pictured above),and was brought to Dublin under the command of Capt. G. R. Bryan of Rathfarnham, Dublin, who was then Master of the Palgrave Murphy vessel, City of Dublin. The Irish Willow arrived at Dublin on 22nd October, 1941, where she underwent extensive repairs at Liffey Dockyard. She eventually sailed for Troon in Scotland to take on bunkers for the outward passage to St. John, New Brunswick where she arrived on 12th January, 1942, and loaded a cargo of wheat for Waterford. Capt. R. Shanks of Belfast was Master of the ship on that first voyage for the company. Although she completed loading on 22nd January, she had to have further repairs carried out and did not sail for another two weeks, arriving at her discharge port, Waterford, on 2nd March, 1942. The ship's log recorded the sighting of a submarine off the coast of Canada on 3rd February but no contact was made with the Irish Willow and the remainder of the homeward passage appeared to have been completed without further incident.

The vessel made eleven subsequent voyages to St. John up to November, 1943, and was then transferred to the cross-channel coal trade for three voyages before returning to the transatlantic grain trade for six voyages. Capt. John Millikin of Belfast took over command of the ship in March, 1943, when Capt. Shanks was transferred to the Irish Beech.

On 13th April, 1945, the Irish Willow was being piloted down the Shannon, on leaving Limerick for St. John, when she went aground off Scattery Island but was re-floated and proceeded to Rushbrooke for repairs. As a result of an investigation of the incident, the Commissioners of Irish Lights undertook to rectify a deficiency of buoys in marking the channel to avoid further mishaps in that area. On completing repairs, the Irish Willow sailed from Rushbrooke for St. John. Three well-known Irish Shipping Engineer Officers, Pat Walker, Michael J. Byrne and Harry Mooney, served on the Irish Willow during the war years as did Capt. W. G. Gibbons and Capt. W. Stiven, both of whom were with the company in the post war years.

The ship was redelivered to her owners on 6th May, 1946, and was renamed Veraguas under the Panamanian flag. She continued trading until July, 1960, when she was scrapped at Tamise, Belgium, thus ending an eventful forty-two years seagoing career.