Posted on 02/05/2006 3:12:21 PM PST by blam
15,000 wrecks lie buried on Irish seabed
Andrew Bushe
LUSITANIA, the Cunard Line steamer sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Cork in 1915 drowning all 1,200 on board, is one of the most famous shipwrecks in Irish waters. But a new study has discovered that the seas surrounding Ireland are littered with evidence of thousands of other maritime tragedies, with as many as 15,000 wrecks resting on the seabed.
Following one of the most extensive research programmes ever carried out by underwater archeologists, the number of wrecks discovered has soared from an initial examination six years ago of just 7,000 vessels.
A search of Lloyd’s List, the shipping insurance newspaper, has discovered 12,000 references to Irish wrecks going back centuries. A list of 11,000 has been compiled by the Department of the Environment’s underwater archaeology unit.
Separately, the Irish National Seabed Survey (INSS) has found more vessels on its scans. It has identified the decaying remains of more than 100 shipwrecks around the Donegal coast alone.
Karl Brady an archeologist with the INSS said: “We are coming across more and more wrecks as we go along. At the moment we are planning to sort and co-ordinate all the information on a computer database and that should give us a clearer picture.
“When we get it all on a database we will be able to analyse it better. We estimate we will eventually have up to 15,000 wrecks on the inventory.”
Brady said the wrecks will range from prehistoric times up to 1945 and will include dugouts, Viking longships, sailing vessels, steamers, great liners and wartime sinkings.
There are thousands more wrecks from ancient times that will never make it on to the inventory. “There is a lot of information for the 19th century and there is some for the 18th, but once you get to the 16th century and to medieval times we have very little information,” said Brady.
The research is providing new details about the ships’ cargo, the fate of passengers and crew, and attempts at salvage. “There are extraordinary stories, and survivor accounts provide a more personal and human aspect of the tragedies,” he said.
The shipwreck research project is not only leading to the discovery of previously unknown vessels but is also providing fresh details about a range of known wrecks.
The HMS Looe was a very unusual Williamite warship that was only a year old when it was sunk at Baltimore in Co Cork in 1697. The ship was patrolling off west Cork guarding against a French invasion and pirate raids.
Connie Kelleher, an underwater archeologist, said the Looe was a prototype man-of-war known as a “one and a half-decker”. Only 34 of them were ever built. After it ran aground on rocks the captain was court-martialled but acquitted. About 10 of the Looe’s cannons have been discovered.
La Trinidad Valencera, which sank off Kinnagoe Bay in Co Donegal in 1588, was the fourth largest ship in King Philip II of Spain’s ill-fated invasion armada. A requisitioned merchant Venetian galley weighing 1,100 tons, it was used to carry armaments, particularly large bronze siege guns that would have been used against British towns and cities if the invasion had succeeded.
Discovered by members of the Derry sub-aqua club, many artefacts have been recovered. Cannon and carriage wheels have been exposed on the site.
The underwater archaeology units are investigating several other Spanish armada wrecks. These include La Surveillante, the most important and probably the best preserved wreck of its kind in Irish waters. It was part of the ill-fated French expedition to support the United Irishmen and sank off Bantry Bay in Cork in 1797.
The most significant find of recent years is The Great Lewis which sank off Waterford harbour in 1645. Archeologists are almost certain the wreck, which is intact in the sand and silt, was Oliver Cromwell’s flagship and claim its importance “cannot be overestimated”.
The details on the discoveries will be kept on the unit’s archive and an inventory published in four volumes.
There's a bit of (Outer) Bankers in my heritage, so I won't deny that. Those days of common piracy and plundering are long gone, however.
These days, we have IRS lawyers instead. ;-)
You have obviously not rented a summer house on the OBX lately.
T'was making a wee joke.
Wow, that is a lot of ship wrecks. Hopefully they will find artifacts that go way back.
Eeeek. Just imagine, you've survived a shipwreck, and you see human beings you're hoping will save you, only they're going to kill you so they can salvage the ship's cargo.
Horrifying.
Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, competes with Jimmy Carter for the title of Worst.President.Ever.
Guinness? Proper Irishmen don't drink Guinness - it's a protestant drink!
Nope, but my cousin Norman (the real estate lawyer) does rent them out. :-)
A goodly number of the ships sunk during WW2 around there were done so with the help of the IRA working for Hitler as spies and guiding his U-boats to hasten the death of many a brave seaman from the UK and US. . .
This area was known as the "Western Approaches" during World War II. German submarines sunk many ships carrying supplies into Britain. It was here that Britain almost lost the war.
Britain was always close to running out of food and war material. The US Coast Guard was escorting convoys prior to American entry into the war but there was a gap and most losses were due to German ability to read the codes the British felt were unbreakable. British evacuation at Dunkirk saved troops but no weapons such as tanks or artillery pieces. It was Britain's fault that their troops got mired down in France and it was Britain's fault that they had insufficent ships and planes to cover the 'gap'.
It was British fault that they did not know how to defeat a wolfpack attacking a convoy. And it was Britain's fault that development of millimeter radar used to spot a submarine was not given high priority.
This polishes Wilson's record somewhat, IMHO.
Well done! The building was a barn, apparently some kind of artist's garret now.
O'Dowds used to be my favorite hangout as well when I lived in KC.
Wilson used the Sedition Act to jail the one opponent who would siphon off votes (he was one the 20th century Dhimmicrat presidents elected by a minority of the popular vote), and Debs still got on the ballot and got votes in 1916. :') FDR interned Asians during WWII... wait a sec... I'm sensing a pattern here... ;')
I wonder if the Spanish Armada left any ships in the areas to be surveyed? Part of the surviving fleet looped around Scotland I think, and I seem to recall armada shipwreck survivors being found in the north.
No there were in fact a number of survivors from the Lusitania. However, the loss of life due to the very rapid sinking of the ship +- Ten minutes caused a very high casualty rate.
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Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
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