Two weeks ago we looked at the mine
incident that closed the Barrow Bridge in 1946. It was a floating mine, the origins of which was not identified, but it had been in the water for some time. It might conceivably have dated to WWI. At the time the mouth of the Harbour was regularly mined from German submarines hoping to interrupt allied supplies. The allies were also deploying mines, most of the access points to the Northern and Southern entry points to the English coast were blanketed by mines in a futile attempt to thwart the u boat menace.
The German mines at the time were a contact mine which were deployed initially from ships but from June 1915 were planted from U Boats. The mines were anchored by cable to the seabed and with enough draft to stay below the waterline. They were pear shared, 3ft in diamater and filled with 350lb of TNT. The top of the mine had 5+ horns, with a glass tube inside, which when a ship depressed, it broke and released a chemical to detonate.
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US Sub Chaser SC-272 moored in the harbour circa 1918
Minaun in the distance
with thanks to Paul O’Farrell who passed on the image to me |
The first Irish casualty of the mines was the SS Manchester Commerce which was sunk off Donegal 26th Oct 1914. It was December before the admiralty realised it was the victim of a minefield and it would be July 1915 before they were satisfied that the estimated 200+ mines had been cleared. Gives some sense of the difficulties posed.
Local readers are probably well aware of the story of Kapitanleutnant Kurt
Tebbenjohanns and UC-44 which was sunk off Dunmore in 1917. The U-boat was replanting a minefield between the Hook and Dunmore East, when it struck a mine. Some might say ironic, but as it happens it was anything but, a story I will return to next week
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accessed from http://www.digitalhistoryproject.com/2012/06/
submarine-mines-in-world-war-i-byleland.html |
Tebbenjohannes and his colleagues were regular visitors to Waterford Harbour, trying to interrupt the flow of resources to allies. Deployed at night from a submerged sub, the task of clearing mines fell to converted trawlers and their crew with a token naval presence aboard. Two boats would work together drawing a metal rope between them in an effort to locate the sunken bombs. The risks were high and any mistake would see the loss of the boat, and most probably the crew. For example in the weeks previous to the arrival of Tebbenjohannes, one boat was lost, but the crew of the minesweeper was rescued by fishermen from Dunmore.
According to Wikipedeia the total number during the whole of WWI was 235,000 sea mines and clearing them after the war took 82 ships five months, working around the clock. Somehow I doubt they found them all.
Mines were also a feature of WWII but this time Ireland was a neutral and the harbour area was not directly targeted. However, readers might be interested to know that it was the Irish who mined Waterford harbour at this stage! There was a minefield operated between Passage East and Ballyhack from 1941. The mines were deployed by the Irish government forces in the channel, and were operated by control from the shore (Ballyhack) also known as command detonated mines. If any threat was seen, the mines were to be detonated by the shore watch. I have no further information on it, but would love to hear any other accounts. (MacGinty: P.61) Personally I’d imagine the minefield was directed more towards protecting Ireland from a German sea borne attack. The Irish government had been informed by an Admiral Fitzgerald of the Royal Navy to expect same via the harbour at an early stage of the war. (MacGinty: P.32)
During WWII mines became more sophisticated. The German side were the first to develop magnetic mines that detonated as a ship passed close to them. Mines were also deployed from airplanes, which meant the seas around Ireland became a target after the fall of France. Mines became a constant hazard, and ships and fishing boats and indeed walkers along the coastline were asked during the emergency to maintain a constant vigil. There’s a fine photo of the Great Western in camouflaged colours in the harbour. For anyone thinking that seems a little far fetched, especially as a neutral country, they would do well to remember that mistakes are commonplace in war and every time the ship went to sea, the seafarers would be justified in thinking it might be their last trip. This must have been heightened as most of those aboard would have known personally family bereaved by such war casualties as the Conningbeg and the Formby.
I’ve mentioned before the perils faced by the Hanlon family from Coolbunnia. 150 sailors died in WWII on Irish registered ships. It’s estimated that up to 4,000 more died on allied ships.(MacGinty: P.58)
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SS Great Western in her war time colours
Accessed from Waterford History Group
posted by Tommy Deegan originally |
Mines were reported regularly from ships, shoreline walkers and the look out posts, operated by the Marine and Coastwatching Service from Sept 1939, that lined the coastline. The interception and dealing with the menace of mines on the seas became a job for the newly formed Irish Marine service (now Navy). (MacGinty: p.26)
Ironically it was the navy’s approach which caused many of the difficulties as experienced by the newly developed inshore fishing fleet in the post war years. The methodology employed was to approach floating mines and detonate them by shooting one of the protruding “horns” A distance of 80 yards clearance was required. However it was realised that when the mine casing was holed, the mine filled with water and sank. The naval personnel naturally assumed that the salt water would corrode the detonators and explosives, however that would not be the case. Up to 183 mines were destroyed by the navy during the war. (Macginty: pp63-5)
Any cursory search in the Irish newspapers will highlight the scale of instances since WWII of mines being brought up in nets. Had the naval personnel realised the longevity of the metal mine and or perceived how post war fishing practices would develop and the scale of bottom trawling they may have reconsidered their disposal strategy. Dozens of these articles relate to Dunmore East and vessels out of Dunmore and I was present in the 1980’s for one such adventure.
The details are sketchy I’m afraid, as I could find no record in the newpspers. However I remember a particularly nasty SE wind and a trawler coming in off Dunmore, but refused entry. The trawler was being towed if I recall correctly. The mine was trapped in the nets and part of the nets had fouled the screw. Holding off Dunmore, a team of army bomb disposal experts arrived in Dunmore that day. I vividly recall their energy and enthusiasm as they jumped out of a dark green jeep with large kit bags and boarded the Betty Breen to go out to the trawler. However, they were back after an hour, green in the face and much less energetic. The trawler was sent over under the Hook and the decison was taken to await a team from the Navy to deal with the issue.
You might think that such problems no longer exist. However the most recent article I could find for Dunmore was the Irish Independent of March 2005 and the most recent nationally was August 2007 in the same paper, this time a mine trapped in nets off Co Cork. Be careful out there, you never know what secrets the sea might give up, particularly on a stormy day.
Thanks to Tomás Sullivan for loaning me his copy of The Irish Navy
MacGinty. T. The Irish Navy. 1995. The Kerryman. Tralee
Drew some information on the mines from:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_mine#Contact_mines
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