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MARLAY

ROSE MYSTIQUE

GUIDE ME II

R.M.S. LEINSTER

The R.M.S. LEINSTER was built by CAMMEL LAIRD Bros. Birkenhead, in 1897 for the City Of Dublin Steam Packet Company costing £95,000, she grossed 2,646 tons and measured 378 x 75 x 42ft., twin screws and was capable of 24 knots.

    During WW1 she was armed with 1 x 12 pounder gun plus 2 signaling guns. On the 10th of October 1918 under the command of Captain W. Birch, while bound for Holyhead from Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) with 680 passengers and crew, she was hit twice by torpedoes from German Submarine U-123 commanded by Oberleutnant Ramm, one in the bow and the other in the engine room.

    She sank in 8 minutes with the loss of 501 lives, most of whom were soliders and in their bunks. Because of censorship at the time the incident was never fully aired to the public.

    She now lies virtually intact in 33 meters of water 12 miles out from shore in Dublin Bay. 

QUEEN VICTORIA

The P.S. QUEEN VICTORIA was built in 1838 by Wilson of Glasgow to a very high specification, she gave her owners The City of Dublin Steam Packet Company excellent service. On 15th February 1853  while returning to Dublin from Liverpool with general cargo and 120 passengers she ran into a snowstorm and struck Howth Head in the middle of the night. After backing off, she struck again under the Baily Lighthouse and went down.

    Over 80 people were lost and a subsequent enquiry blamed the captain, first mate and those responsible for the lighthouse. Attempts to raise the vessel failed and she was broken open and salvaged in situ. She now lies in 20 meters of water and consists mainly of boilers, remains of the engine along with anchors and her paddle wheels.

S.V. TAYLEUR

The S.V. TAYLEUR was built in 1853 by the Bank-Quay Foundry Co. for the White Star Line at a cost of £34,000. She measured 250 x 40 x 21ft, grossed 1,977 tons, had three decks and three masts and, was the largest sailing ship of her time. She had 4 decks over a lower hold and could carry 4000 tons of cargo. 

    On 21st January 1854 while on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne, with a crew of 26 (11 boys) and 652 people on board, many of whom were heading for the goldfields she ran into a gale in Dublin Bay. With visibility down to a few yards, she dropped 2 anchors when in lee of the shore off Lambay Island. These promptly snapped and she drifted onto the rocks. Some 360 were lost including nearly all the women and children. The cause of the disaster was variously blamed on compass error due to the magnetism of the ship. Some foreigners in the crew were considered incompetent and the crew was thought to be inadequate to wear ship and manage the sails (a crew of 80 would have been normal) . It was clear that the ship was not properly tried out and had been rushed into service to cater for the mass of emigrants heading for Australia.

POLEWELL

The 2013 ton collier Polewell was torpedoed by U 98 and sunk on 5 June 1918. She was carrying coal from Troon to an unknown destination in France.

    She went down 6 miles off Rockabill. Previously on 5/8/1917 she was attacked in the Atlantic by a submarine whose torpedo missed. The wreck is charted but the position is slightly inaccurate. Nautilus SAC are reputed to own the wreck which lies in 30 metres. The Polewell was built in 1888 as the Northumbrian at Troon.  

MARLAY

    The 800 ton 200 ft. collier MARLAY was built by Workman Clarke in 1890 for her owner Tedcastles. She was en route from Liverpool to Dublin when she sank a mile off the Baily on 16/12/1902 and she now lies in 20 metres of water.

    Captain Hamilton and 15 others were lost while a seaman named McGlue was saved from a boat by the trawler Peter Johnson (Captain Wright) near Skerries. He recounted that though the hatches were battened down they came loose. The captain ordered the boats out, McGlue boarded one but it was washed away. The rest of the crew perished and were never found.

ROSE MYSTIQUE

    The French fishing trawler ROSE MYSTIQUE sank between the lighthouse on Rockabill and Lambay Island on Tuesday 4th Feb 1957. She had landed a sick crewman the day before at Dublin and had set off to rejoin a French fleet fishing north of Lambay. A storm arose that night and she last reported her position as off the Kish Light. Nothing more was heard until her punt was recovered off Rockabill by another French trawler.

    An RAF Shakleton spotted wreckage off Rockabill and further debris was washed ashore at St. John's Point in Co. Down. A French frigate was dispatched to assist the search which was joined by the Irish corvette L.E. Cliona but no trace of the seven crew were found.

    It was quite probable that she struck a sandbank off Rockabill and drifted 4 miles south as the wreck is now located near caves in the cliffs on the north side of Lambay.

SHAMROCK II

The SHAMROCK II was a 230 foot 865 ton iron vessel which was built by Inglis in Scotland in 1879 for the Lairds Dublin to Glasgow service. She sank in early May 1918 after running ashore off the NE corner of Lambay Island. 30 people aboard were taken off by a patrol boat before the Shamrock broke her back. 

WILL O THE WISP

    The WILL O THE WISP was a 150 ft 385 ton auxiliary schooner built by Cookson of Newcastle in 1854.. She was lost in early Feb. 1855 en route from Newcastle to Dublin with a cargo of coal and some passengers which included 13 captains of sailing colliers windbound at Dublin. The captains had taken the opportunity to visit their families in England and were returning to Dublin. Only one lifeboat containing the ships papers was found by the Portrane coastguard, all 18 aboard had perished.

    There is some confusion as to the exact location of the wreck, some suggest that it was trying to pass between the island and the mainland and was lost near Burren harbour. Others say that its located on the north east corner of Lambay near the headland called Harp Ear. There is an upside down wreck off Harp Ear that might be the Will O The Wisp but it has to date not been proved.

KILKENNY

    The B&I line container ship KILKENNY sank on 21 November 1991 while heading into Dublin port. She collided with another container ship the HASSELWERDER which was on charter to the B&I line and was leaving port. The collision occurred a mile off Poolbeg where the Kilkenny which had been holed amidships sank rapidly with the loss of three of the crew. The wreck removal contract was awarded to Bugsier whose floating crane Roland commenced work in January 1992, divers were from the firm Smit Tak of Rotterdam. The ship was cut in three and each section was removed on a submersible barge to North Quay Extension where the metal was cut up for scrap by the Hammond Lane company.

VICTORIA

    The 70 ton Glasgow clipper VICTORIA was wrecked on Dalkey Island abrest of the Muglins in February 1855. She carried a crew of 6, Captain Brown, 4 deckhands and a young boy. She was engaged in the fruit trade between Spain, Ireland and Scotland and was on her return leg carrying a load of pig iron when she was driven ashore during a snowstorm. The sea was rough and no boat could be launched to help in the rescue. The captain and one deckhand drowned while the others were assisted by Maurice Scallan the man in charge of the island. Wreckage and anchors still lie between the Muglins and Dalkey Island.

ADONIS

    The 458 ton, 200 ft., 100 horsepower iron framed screw steamer ADONIS of Waterford struck the Muglins in early January 1862. She was built by Walker at Northumberland in 1847 and had one deck and three masts schooner rigged. She was owned by Malcomsons of Portlaw and left Belfast on the 3rd January bound for Waterford, Plymouth and London. She struck the Muglins at full speed (around 10 knots) and then backed off and drifted in a S.E. direction. Captain George Spark Silly ordered the lifeboats to be manned off Bray Head as the ship was starting to sink. The first and second lifeboats with 22 crew reached Bray and alerted the coastguard.

GUIDE ME II

The GUIDE ME II was built in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1907 as a Peterhead F.V. Drifter and was converted into an anti-submarine coastal gunboat during WW1.  She grossed 100 tons and measured 60ft long by 15ft wide, her armament consisted of one 6 pounder gun. While on patrol in August of 1918 she was in a collision with another ship and sank 1 mile S.E. of the Mugglins. She lay undiscovered until 1990 when her deck gun was removed. She lies upright in 36 metres of water virtually intact.