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Disappearance of Cheekpoint schooner Chase

By Tomás Sullivan

This guest blog is brought to us by Tomás Sullivan. It is a glimpse into the days of sail in the harbour. It is also a tragic tale so common in seafaring communities. The story is of Captain Daniel Sullivan of Coolbunnia, Cheekpoint and his vessel the schooner Chase.  Daniel was married to Rose nee McCarthy and they had six children. Bridget, Edward, Charles, Maria, Daniel and Thomas. 

Sullivan Family

Daniel was born and raised in Cheekpoint. Like many others in the village, he probably started his working life fishing in the river.  His earliest sailing record places him aboard the Waterford-owned Mary Jane.  Daniel is listed as Mate. It’s a role he would not have attained without lots of experience. He is serving under Captain John Phelan of Mary Street in the City. Waterford coal merchant and ship broker John E Angle, Hanover Street, Waterford owned this ship.

A pencil sketch of the likely layout of the schooner Chase by marine artist KB Cleare

Schooner Chase

According to Lloyds Register of Shipping the sailing schooner Chase was built for Daniel Sullivan in 1876/7 by Hodges Boat Yard Cardiff.  The details listed are as follows:

Accessed from Lloyds Registar[i]. 

Sailing ships such as the Chase were competing at the time with larger and more reliable steam-powered vessels. Many of the cargos that she could hope for were bulky goods that were not considered time-sensitive. Cargos such as coal were typical for which there was a significant Irish market.  The return trips could carry various goods such as pit props for the Welsh mines. Agriculturalproducts also such as barrels of oats and barley and sometimes ballast. 

Chase ports of call

The Chase took cargo from where she could and was a regular into the ports of Waterford and New Ross. The vessel called to Cheekpoint, Passage East, Arthurstown and Dungarvan.  Other destinations recorded in the ship logs are Cork, Wexford Wicklow, Dublin, Derry, Liverpool, Milford, Bristol and Portsmouth.

Pilots Licence

Daniel applied to the Waterford Harbour Commissioners pilot committee to be examined for a pilot’s licence in 1878.  This application would allow him to bring his ship into port without the cost of a river pilot.  The move was understandable given that he had known the harbour since childhood.  An exemption would allow him the freedom to sail when he decided.  It was also a crucial factor in reducing the costs of his vessel. Not paying pilotage, gave him a better margin on his cargo and reduced his outgoings.  His application was referred to the Board of Trade. The following March 1879, following an examination before the Board, Daniel was awarded a pilot exemption for the entire harbour.

Crew of the Chase

The following is a list of those recorded as shipping out on the Chase as crewmen.[ii] 

Accessed from NLI Records of the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen, 1860 – 1921

Last trip

According to family lore the Chase departed Waterford for Cardiff in Wales on the 28th of August 1884.  Aboard was a cargo of pit wood.  Fatefully, Daniel decided to stop at Cheekpoint, perhaps to wait for favourably wind and/or tide.  His two sons came to see their father off, Daniel jnr and Thomas.  Their older brother Charles, aged 20, was already serving as Mate on the family vessel.  Another Cheekpoint man, Michael Nugent was serving as an able seaman.  Michael was aged 22. 

Image and text of last recorded returned Ships log in December 1883. Accessed from the National Archives.
Schooners at anchor off Cheekpoint circa 1899. Photo AH Poole Collection – NLI

Daniel managed to talk his father into taking him on board.  As he was then 14 he probably argued that it was high time for him to “learn the ropes”. Thomas, aged 12, must have been sorely disappointed not to have been aboard when the Chase headed away downriver.

Some days later Rose Sullivan was out in the yard of their family home in Coolbunnia, overlooking the estuary.  Suddenly she started screaming and crying saying she could see her husband and son Daniel Sr and Junior. She claimed that they had just passed through the yard.  Not long after official word reached the family that the Chase was overdue.[iii] 

Source: UK REGISTER OF DEATHS AT SEA  1884

Overdue in a storm

What was officially known was little.  The schooner had made good time on passage over and departed Cardiff on September 5th 1884. Aboard was a cargo of coal, their destination was Passage East.  Although they left in favourable conditions, the weather was changing. Soon the ship was sailing into a westerly gale as it headed out of the Bristol Channel.  It is speculation but it seems that the Chase ran for shelter, steering a course for the protection of Milford Haven.  Many other ships were in difficulty, including the Triumph which saw two crewmen washed overboard. The pilot cutter Blue Eyed Maid was lost. Further north on the Welsh coast the St Dogmael’s lifeboat rescued three crew and the captain’s wife of the wrecked smack Ellen.[iv]

Nothing was ever heard from the Chase again.  A coastguard man later reported finding “…a head-board with CHASE painted on it, and a female figurehead”. The information provided to the Receiver of Wrecks for the area included the siting of other wreckage. This was seen between Sheep Island and Linney Head on the Pembrokeshire coast. This included “…a mainboom jaws upwards, with a piece of mast and some heavy weight, probably sails, under water which rendered it unmanageable [to retrieve] by small boats”.[v]

What efforts the crew of the Chase employed is unknown.  Whether the ship’s boat was launched, or any tried to swim for it is unknown.  Given the location, it was thought likely the ship had overturned in the gale.  In the circumstances, those aboard would have had little time to consider their predicament. Or for Daniel to think of his family on board or at home in Cheekpoint. 

Conclusion

Chase, most likely foundered sometime on the 6th or 7th of September 1884.  She was finally listed as missing in February 1885. Prior to this she was considered by authorities as overdue.[vi]. But long before then, Rose Sullivan knew she had lost the main breadwinner of her home, two of her sons and the family’s investment.  

Like many other families in the area, the sea was one of the main forms of employment.  But it came at a cost, such as with the Chase and the Sullivan and Nugent families.  Edward, Sullivan was lost while crossing the Atlantic on another sailing ship.  Bridget Sullivan would later lose her husband James Clawson on the SS Formby in 1917.  Michael Nugent’s brother William died while serving aboard the schooner Elizabeth Cowman while sailing down the Suir.  A later Nugent descendant, Edmund, was lost at sea in 1941.

There are no flowers on a sailor’s grave
No lilies on an ocean wave
The only tribute is the seagulls sweep
And the tears upon a loved one’s cheek
Fear not for those who go down to the sea in ships
For as sunset draws near and dawn breaks afar
We remember those who have crossed the bar

PAUL HOLLAND

I want to thank Pat O’Gorman for his generous assistance with this piece and his endless hours chatting with my late father Tom Sullivan, discussing Cheekpoint’s seafaring history.   Thanks also to P.J O’Shea for all the information on the Nugent family.   Finally to acknowledge the assistance of Alan Jones from Shipwrecks UK.  Tomás Sullivan 2024

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[i] https://archive.org/details/HECROS1884/page/n247/mode/2up

[ii] Accessed from NLI Records of the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen, 1860 – 1921

[iii] These apparitions were very common in seafaring communities.  A“Fetch“ appears regularly in Irish folklore. See for example Michael Fortune’s post at Folklore.ie https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1175277146956289

[iv] Western Mail – Monday 08 September 1884; page 3

[v] Bridgend Chronicle – Friday 19 September 1884; page 4

[vi] Liverpool Weekly Courier – Saturday 07 February 1885; page 5

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Celebrating Water Heritage Day in Cheekpoint, A Community of Tides

By Damien McLellan

Sunday, August 25th, 2024, concluded Ireland’s National Heritage Week, celebrating our cultural, historic, and natural treasures and resources. Of course, there were major national events, but mostly locals got together to share and enjoy perhaps overlooked or underappreciated treasures on our doorsteps.

Such a local event took place on this day in Cheekpoint, Co Waterford. As it was also Water Heritage Day, the Tides and Tales Maritime Community Project, organised and coordinated by Andrew Doherty, presented an afternoon of historical and craft items related to making a living in a fishing village, a Community of Tides, where the Suir meets the Barrow and flows out to the Celtic Sea.  

It was a beautiful day, but we met at 1 pm in the historic Reading Room where Ray McGrath set the tone for the afternoon with his memories of the four key sounds in his life: the 8 am and then the 5 pm train rattling over the Barrow Bridge; the tide rushing in and out under his cottage above Mahon’s Weir and the comforting sound of punts moving with their outboard motors as fishermen worked the waters.

Ray McGrath setting the scene at the Reading Room

Andrew led the way down to the strand, his partner Deena keeping her eye on the stragglers. Andrew’s first stop was at his front gate where he showed us an old beam trawl used in the days of sail and tide before the advent of steam power and the coming of the otter board.

A sketch of a beam trawl in operation 1850. After Wallop Brabazon

Our special guest, Marina Mulligan , the Bio Diversity Officer with Waterford City & Co Council, took the opportunity of this stop to point out in the nearby hedge a ragwort plant hosting the caterpillar stage of the rare Cinnabar moth. Many of us were surprised to learn that the infamous ragwort was the exclusive source of food and habitat of the Cinnabar moth, now diminishing as we successfully wage war with its host plant.  Marina encouraged us to see roadside ragwort as a good thing, as she fielded questions from some whose ragwort was in the wrong place and how to deal with it.

The Cinnebar moth on Ragworth

This exchange underlined how useful these occasions can be, being able to show and tell, and being able to ask questions of people who knew what they were talking about and liked being interrupted with questions. It also set the tone for the afternoon, but the relaxed and enthusiastic to and fro often had Andrew looking a bit anxiously at the time.

Marina Mulligan provides input on the types of seaweeds found on the shoreline.

Down on the strand at Moran’s Poles, Marina gave an entertaining talk and explanation of the various species of seaweed at our feet before we moved on to what for me was the set-piece of the afternoon, local fisherman, Pat Moran, demonstrating how to ‘trip off’ a punt, meaning, how to push out a boat from the shore so that it stays safely anchored and afloat until it is next needed. See below.

While the attendees were still buzzing, Breda Murphy soon got back their attention with her personal experiences of the Passage and Crooke Cockle Women, including her grandmother, who picked and prepared cockles on the strand before taking them to Waterford City by ass and cart for sale every Friday.   She drew affectionate laughter as she described her wimpy attempts to carry a half-empty hessian sack of cockles up the steep path to Crooke church while her elders made the same journey three times with bulging sacks on their shoulders.  

Breda Murphy explains the tidal knowledge of the Cockle Pickers

We walked up the blackberry laden Whelan’s Road from the strand and down to the village green where William Doherty had prepared an ingenious model to explain the relatively local tradition of fish weirs. Believed to have been first developed by the Cistercians at nearby Dunbrody Abbey and in use by them until the Dissolution, they were deployed, with one or two exceptions, until recent times to trap fish. William enthusiastically explained to his very interactive audience how they were constructed, using larch timber and how the outgoing tide was harnessed to trap and then recover the fish.

William Doherty explains the Waterford Harbour Head Weir that his father fished, the Castle Weir

Ray McGrath reflected on the afternoon with his appreciation of the events and made a heartfelt plea for farmers to continue to shift to organic fertiliser and stop the poisoning of the fish and the river by phosphate run-offs, a timely warning to express on Water Heritage Day.

Next, Andrew invited Myra Desai, daughter of the late local fisherman John Heffernan to read a poem she wrote fitting the occasion, which is reproduced here with her kind permission.

Myra gives an introduction to her poem, explaining here motivation in writing it

Finally, back to the Reading Room for coffee, tea and cakes prepared by Ellen, with Hannah, Laura and Moya. There was a further presentation planned but I headed home, tired but happy, having feasted well on a lovely afternoon of information, entertainment and good company.

Thank you Damien for this wonderful sense of the day. The cakes were supplied by Julie Doherty AKA Cake Dame. Brian Power and family generously donated all the other supplies at Power’s Shop, Cheekpoint.  Conversation flowed, the photographic exhibition was enjoyed and the committee provided a short update on the new website, which is generously funded by the Heritage Council. If you would like to know the details here is a recording of the presentation.

A short powerpoint presentation of our new website supported by the Heritage Council
Carmel Goulding photo
The day was generously supported by the Local Authority Waters Programme, Community Water Development Fund 2024
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The foundation of the Duncannon Lifeboat Station

1869 was an important date in the history of Waterford Harbour.  In September of that year, a new lifeboat was placed at Duncannon, Co Wexford on the eastern shore of the harbour.  Although it was only in place for 17 years and launched 8 times it saved 43 lives according to the lifeboat records of the RNLI.  This blog looks at the station’s establishment and the arrival of the RNLB Richard and Anne. The September blog will catalogue the rescues and the decision to close the station in 1886. 

Background

Seafaring has always been a dangerous occupation.  Since boats set out on the water, crews have been at the mercy of the weather.  According to tradition, Hook Lighthouse originated with a Welsh monk, Saint Dubhán. The monk established a light beacon there for vessels entering Waterford Harbour as early as the 6th Century. [i]

The Royal National Lifeboat Institute was established in 1824 to assist vessels and their crews in distress.  In the absence of a lifeboat in the harbour, locals, fellow seafarers, pilots and Coastguard crews could be counted on in a crisis. It was not until the 1860s that the pressure for a local station started to bear fruit.

New Committee

In September 1868 a local paper expressed relief that a plan to create a new lifeboat station at Duncannon was in place.  Stating that “… the want of lifeboat there has been more than once brought home to us…”.   Responding to the urging of the Waterford Harbour Commissioners, a local committee was established which included: Sir Robert Paul, Bart, chairman; Hon. Captain Chichester, J P.; Messrs. William Malcomson, Edward Roberts, Hugh Nevins, William Joyce, P. Hare, J.P.; John Farrell, Walter Breen, J P.: Captain Cochrane, Captain Bartlett, assistant sec.; A. Stephens, D. Jenkins, R.N, coast guard officer; A. P. Allen, hon. sec.[ii]

Funding was crucial – when is it not? The article states that “Waterford Harbour Board have given a donation of £1O, and have promised an annual subscription of the same amount. The Waterford Steam Company has also donated £1O and promised an annual subscription of £5. Sir Robert Paul gave £3, and his name is down for £2 annual subscription. No doubt many others will follow the example so nobly set them.”[iii]

Lifeboat Station

A lifeboat would be nothing without a station to house it. The committee managed to secure a site from Duncannon Fort. According to the RNLI archives the lifeboat house was constructed for £170 on a site granted by the War Department.

Current view of the old lifeboat station, Duncannon. It was later sold, repurposed and expanded to the left.
Lifeboat station as seen from the Fort

Arrival to Waterford

A year later, after many meetings no doubt, a new lifeboat arrived in Waterford City. The vessel was carried aboard the Waterford Steam Co steamer Leda.  The boat and its equipment were provided from a legacy left by Mrs and Miss Warner of Lyncombe, Somerset. According to the paper, the lifeboat would be called the “Richard and Anne Warner.”[iv] 

The boat was described as “…33 feet long, 8 feet wide, and rows 10 oars double-banked…”.  It had completed trials in the Regent’s Canal Dock, London. Its “…stability, self-righting, and self-ejecting of water were fully and satisfactorily tested. The water shipped, when the boat was capsized by means of a crane, was self-ejected in about 23 seconds.”[v]

At Waterford, an excited crowd gathered to welcome the new lifeboat.  The Cork Examiner reported the event in full.  Here’s a brief excerpt.  “On Monday evening, the lifeboat… was placed in her carriage and gaily decorated; the crew, which had come up from Duncannon, were on board, and the equipage was drawn through the city, having gone up the Quay, and round through King-street, Broad-street, Beresford-street, and the Mall. It was finally drawn up opposite the Custom House.” There the Countess of Ely named the new lifeboat and made a gift of £12 towards the crew. The lifeboat was subsequently upset to show the self-righting power of the vessel.[vi]

Lady Jane Ely. Image courtesy of Liam Ryan

To Duncannon

I can’t find how the lifeboat came down to Duncannon.  Perhaps it was towed astern of the paddle steamer (PS Tintern was the regular steamer at this point). The Tintern surely delayed her evening sailing downriver to accommodate the event.  As it happened there would be no immediate rush. It would be January 1873 before the first shout for the lifeboat. 

To mark 200 years of the RNLI, Cormac Lowth will deliver a fascinating lecture on the institution in Dunmore East in October.

Next month we will look at the rescues carried out by the lifeboat. We will look at a controversy related to the loss of the SS Kinsale. Finally, we will look at the decision to close the station in preference for Fethard On Sea.

I’m indebted to Walter Foley for access to original information by Jimmy White for this piece. Kevin Downes who gave me information previously. Also to Liam Ryan, Fethard and David Carroll for their generous assistance.  Also to acknowledge the help of Hayley Whiting, Heritage Archive and Research Manager, RNLI. All the errors and omissions are, of course, my own

Would you like to be part of the ever growing Tides and Tales Community? If you would like to join our regular monthly email list, please complete the form below and hit subscribe.

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The Waterford Proposal – Establishing the present day system of ships navigational lights

For centuries navigation at sea was conducted with care, and attention but a certain degree of providence. Until the coming of steam power, this approach had a certain veracity – ships under sail tended to follow the winds and prevailing weather systems and thus generally stayed out of the other’s way. However, the introduction of steam-power meant that ships could now dictate to the wind and tide.  As the number of vessels grew, so too did the need for an international code of navigation. One crucial element of this was navigation lights.

Several have been credited with developing the system. But the person deserving the plaudits is Captain William Davis Evans; a man who should be better known to us here in Waterford.  Not just because this system which has prevented countless collisions and possible loss of life has relevance in any port or seafaring community.  But because he was ships master on the Dunmore East to Milford Haven run when he posited his lighting system, it was first trialled on the Waterford to Milford run, and his invention was championed by Waterford Chamber of Commerce in a petition to parliament now known to maritime historians as the “Waterford Proposal”[i]

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Waterford to Dublin by the Ouida motorboat- 1911

I’m delighted to introduce this guest blog, written by Avril Harris based on the diary entries of her father-in-law Ernie Harris of Waterford city. It gives a fascinating glimpse into the country of Ireland at the start of the 20th Century and a form of river traffic that I neither have experience of, nor have featured before. I know for certain my regulars will relish it.

King Edward VII visited Waterford on Monday 1st May 1904. Ernie Harris, then 19, was working and living there at the time. Like others in the city, he hung flags out for the occasion. Four gunboats came up the river on the previous Friday. His father, mother and brother Stanley came on Saturday to see the illuminations. On Sunday Stanley, Ernie and his friend Bertie Poole went for a walk along the river and were invited to see over one of the gunboats, the Skipjack– “mums the word”, he says in his diary. The king arrived on the Monday and Ernie joined in ringing the cathedral bells. He saw the royal personage on two occasions, going on the river in the Clodagh to get a better view.

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