After the war, she returned to the British and, later, the Irish merchant service. In Ringsend, Ireland, she collided with a tram, her bowsprit smashing through the tram's windows.[3] In 1944, during the Second World War, sailing as a neutral, she vanished without trace with the loss of eleven lives.
Arklow schooners
Photographs of Cymric held in the John Oxley Library
Arklow, Ireland, has a long history of ship-owning. According to local tradition, it extends back to the export of tin and copper by the Phoenicians.[4] The fleet was locally owned, managed, mastered and manned. Each ship was an individual enterprise, each divided into 64 shares. A captain would probably have a 25% interest in his ship: that is 16 shares.[5] The owner listed in documents was the managing owner, not necessarily the beneficial owner. The Arklow shipowners cooperated: they established their own mutual insurance company.[6] A century ago, ownership became concentrated. In 1966 Tyrrell and Hall formed an umbrella company to operate their ships: Arklow Shipping.[7] By November 2011 they had a modern fleet of about 45 ships.[8]
Early career
Two Arklow schooners, Cymric and Gaelic, were built by William Thomas in Amlwch. Cymric was launched in March 1893.[9]Gaelic was launched in March 1898.[10] They were built as barquentines,[lower-roman 1] In Arklow, the preferred sail configuration was the double top sailed schooner.[5] In 1906, Cymric joined the Arklow fleet and was rigged as a schooner.[lower-roman 2]
In the new century, 1900, there was an expansion in the Arklow fleet, as larger iron-hulled schooners were purchased. Job Tyrrell purchased Detlef Wagner and Maggie Williams, while Job Hall acquired Patrician, Celtic and Cymric. In the main, all of these ships engaged in the Spanish wine trade until Detlef Wagner was sunk[14] by UC-72 on 28 May 1917[15]
First World War
Three Arklow schooners were requisitioned by the Admiralty to be used as Q-ships, they were: Cymric, Gaelic and Mary B Mitchell. They sailed the Southwest Approaches, masquerading as merchantmen, inviting attack by U-boats. Their guns were concealed, when a U-boat approached, a "panic party" would abandon the ship, while the gun crews waited for their target to come into range. The expectation was that the U-boat would approach the apparently abandoned ship and would be surprised and sunk when the guns were revealed and opened fire. Great successes were claimed and medals awarded.[16]Mary B Mitchell claimed to have sunk two U-boats in the same day.[17]
Post-war analysis did not confirm these claims. After the war, it was concluded that Q-ships were greatly over-rated, diverting skilled seamen from other duties without sinking enough U-boats to justify the strategy.[18]
Cymric sank a submarine in what is now called 'friendly fire'. On 15 October 1918, HMSJ6, a J-classsubmarine, was on the surface outside her base, Blythe, when she was spotted by Cymric which mistook her 'J6' marking for 'U6'.[19]Cymric opened fire, J6 tried to signal, but the signalman was killed. J6 fled into a fog bank, but Cymric located J6 again, and sank her, with the loss of 14 lives.[20] An order under the Official Secrets Act prohibited mention of this incident until 1969.[21]
Between the wars
Photos of Cymric taken on 25 September 1930, in Australia
After the war, she was disarmed and returned to Halls of Arklow. The auxiliary engine remained. By now large steamers were more profitable than sailing ships for ocean voyages. However, within Ireland transport was becoming more difficult. The neglect of the networks during World War I was compounded by destruction during the war of independence and the subsequent civil war.[22][23] It was more cost-effective to transport goods by sea around the coast rather than using internal road or rail. Cymric had a new career: transporting malt from ports such as Ballinacurra, New Ross and Wexford to Dublin.
It was on one of these voyages that she collided with a tram. Cymric was waiting for Mac Machon Bridge, a bascule bridge, at the entrance to the Inner Basin of the Grand Canal Dock53°20′33″N6°14′17″W / 53.342369°N 6.23795°W / 53.342369; -6.23795 to open, when a gust of wind propelled her towards the bridge.[lower-roman 3] and her bowsprit speared tram number 233. There are many versions of this story. Details differ, including the date, which varies from 12 February 1927[13] or 1928[25] to 21 December 1943[26] Research by Dr Edward Bourke established that there were two separate incidents: on Tuesday 29 November 1921, Cymric did, indeed, collide with a tram. On 21 December 1943, Happy Harry, a different Arklow schooner, collided with the same bridge.[27] No one was hurt in either incident.
On 22 August 1922, Cymric struck the Brandy Rocks and was beached at Kilmore, County Wexford. She was refloated on 24 August 1922.[28][29]
Cymric was witness to a sad event that would change the way lighthouses and lightships are administered in Ireland.[citation needed] The general lighthouse authority for Ireland, the Commissioners of Irish Lights, had removed a lightship from the Arklow Bank and replaced it with an unlit bouy. On 19 February 1931, the Julia en route from Glasgow to Newhaven, grounded on the Arklow Bank and was wrecked with the loss of the crew of five, two of whom were from Arklow. Cymric, with her shallow draught, discovered the tragedy two days later.[30] At the time, the Commissioners of Irish Lights, which was an all-island body, continued to report to the UK Board of Trade. It became a political issue.[31] The Irish Lights Commissioners (Adaptation) Order 1935 was made, amending the legislative basis for the Commissioners of Irish Lights.[32]
On Christmas Eve 1933, Cymric grounded on a bank in Wexford Harbour. Rope, which had been used the previous day in an attempt to re-float another vessel, fouled her propeller. She spent five days aground and was eventually refloated with the aid of a diver and the removal of some barrels of malt from her cargo.
Second World War
Memorial in Dublin, with the names of those lost on neutral Irish ships, including Cymric, during World War II
At the outbreak of World War II, there were only 56 ships on the Irish register; 14 of those were Arklow schooners. Sailing as neutrals, these schooners played a vital role in keeping Ireland supplied.[33]
Cymric was charted by Betsons to travel to Portugal. Betsons imported agricultural equipment and fertilisers from America. In November 1939, Roosevelt signed the Fourth Neutrality Act forbidding American ships from entering the "war zone",[34] which was defined as a line drawn from Spain to Iceland. Cargoes intended for Ireland were shipped to Portugal. With cargoes "piling up on the quays of Lisbon awaiting shipment",[35] Betsons chartered Cymric to travel to Lisbon to collect these cargoes.[36] Setting sail from Ireland, Cymric would carry food to the United Kingdom. There she would collect the British export of coal and carry it to Portugal.[37] In Lisbon, Cymric loaded the awaiting American cargo and brought it back to Ireland.
In October 1943, she had a total refit in Ringsend Dockyard. On what was to be her final voyage, on 23 February 1944, she left Ardrossan in Scotland, where she loaded a cargo of coal for Lisbon. She was sighted off Dublin on the following day – that was her last sighting. No wreckage was ever found. She might have hit a mine, been sunk by a U-boat, or been driven by a gale into the 'prohibited area' of Bay of Biscay and been attacked and sunk by Allied aircraft enforcing the blockade.[38] This occasionally occurred, as MVKerlogue was strafed by the No. 307 Polish Night Fighter Squadron on 23 October 1943 in that area.[39][40]
Neither the Cymric or her crew of eleven was ever seen again.[41] When Dublin's docklands were redeveloped, a new residential street was named 'Cymric Road' 53°20′42″N6°12′55″W / 53.345°N 6.21514°W / 53.345; -6.21514.[lower-roman 4] It is not far from where she collided with the tram. On the third Sunday of every November, those who lost their lives on neutral Irish ships, including the Cymric, are remembered.
USS Grayling (SS-209) was the tenth Tambor-class submarine to be commissioned in the United States Navy in the years leading up to the country's December 1941 entry into World War II. She was the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the grayling. Her wartime service was in the Pacific Ocean. She completed seven war patrols in the following 20 months, and is credited with the sinking of over 20,000 tons of Japanese merchant shipping and warships. Grayling received six battle stars for her World War II service. She was declared lost with all hands in September 1943. Of the twelve Tambor-class submarines, only five survived the war.
HMS Scylla was a Dido-class cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, with the keel being laid down on 19 April 1939. She was launched on 24 July 1940, and commissioned 12 June 1942.
SS American Victory is a Victory ship which saw service during the final months of World War II in the Pacific Theater of Operations, the Korean War from 1951–1954, and the Vietnam War from 1966–1969. Built in June 1945, she carried ammunition and other cargo from Los Angeles to Southeast Asia, then ferried cargo, equipment and troops back to the U.S. after the war ended. She survived two typhoons and one hurricane.
The J-class submarines were seven submarines developed by the Royal Navy prior to the First World War in response to claims that Germany was developing submarines that were fast enough to operate alongside surface fleets. Six were completed during mid-1916, while a seventh entered service at the end of 1917.
The SS Irish Oak was an Irish-operated steamship that was sunk in the North Atlantic during World War II by a German submarine.
SS Cymric was a steamship of the White Star Line built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast and launched on 12 October 1897.
Cotati was a steam cargo ship built in 1918–1919 by Moore Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Oakland for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. The vessel was briefly used for the first two years of her career to transport frozen meat between North and South America and Europe. The ship was subsequently laid up at the end of 1921 and remained part of the Reserve Fleet through the end of 1940. In January 1941 she was sold together with two other vessels to the New Zealand Shipping Co. and subsequently in 1942 was transferred to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and renamed Empire Avocet. The ship was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-125 on 30 September 1942 on one of her regular wartime trips.
The Irish Mercantile Marine during World War II continued essential overseas trade in the conflict, a period referred to as The Long Watch by Irish mariners.
Below is the timeline of maritime events during the Emergency,. This period was referred to as The Long Watch by Irish Mariners. This list is of events which affected the Irish Mercantile Marine, other ships carrying Irish exports or imports, and events near the Irish coast.
Mary B Mitchell was a British schooner completed in 1892 that served as a Q-ship during the First World War. She was in service from April 1916 until the end of hostilities, operating in the Southwest Approaches from her base in Falmouth. She had several encounters with German U-boats in her career, and was credited with the destruction of two, though post-war analysis established that no U-boats were sunk. She had a reputation for being an efficient and successful vessel.
Tyrronall was a 248 GRT Coaster that was built in 1935 as the 199 GRT schooner Heimat by Flender Werke AG, Lübeck, Germany for German owners. She was seized by the Allies in May 1945, passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and was renamed Empire Contamar.
MV Murell was a 319 GRT coaster that was built in 1940 as Fiddown by Goole Shipbuilding & Repairing Co Ltd, Goole, Yorkshire, United Kingdom for S Morris Ltd. In 1940, she was run down and sunk by HMS Campbelltown in the Mersey Estuary. She was salvaged in 1942, repaired and passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT), renamed Empire Estuary. She was sold into merchant service in 1946 and renamed Goldfawn. A further sale in 1952 saw her renamed Creekdawn. A sale to an Irish company in 1954 saw her renamed Murell. She served until 1972, when she was scrapped.
James Postlethwaite was a schooner, launched in 1881. She operated out of Arklow after 1909. She was in Hamburg on the day that Britain entered the First World War with its declaration of war against Germany. Her crew was imprisoned and she was impounded and used as a barge to carry munitions.
HMS J6 was a First World War J-class submarine built for the Royal Navy by HM Dockyard at Devonport in Plymouth. Commissioned in 1916, she was sunk in a friendly fire incident by the Q-ship Cymric in October 1918.
The Mary B Mitchell was a British and later an Irish schooner, affectionately known as Mary B.. She was a pleasure craft, a war hero, a working schooner, a film star and a transporter of essential cargoes in dangerous waters.
Irish Willow was one of the few ships which maintained Irish trade during World War II.
Emperor Alexander was launched at Sunderland in 1814. She traded widely during which time she suffered some misfortunes, being plundered once and grounding once. In 1823 she carried settlers from Tobermory, Mull, to Quebec. She was wrecked in November 1832.
SS Coast Trader was built as the cargo ship SS Holyoke Bridge in 1920 by the Submarine Boat Company in Newark, New Jersey. The Coast Trader was torpedoed and sank 35 nautical miles southwest of Cape Flattery, off the Strait of Juan de Fuca in U.S. state of Washington by the Japanese submarine I-26. Survivors were rescued by schooner Virginia I and HMCS Edmundston. She rests on the ocean floor at.
This is not the 1955 and 1957 Fastnet Race winning yacht Carina II.
De Wadden was a steel-hulled, three-masted auxiliary schooner that was built in 1917 by Gebroeders Van Diepen of Waterhuizen, Netherlands. She and her two sister ships, De Lauwers and De Dollart, were ordered by the NV Nederlandsche Stoomvaart Maatschappij 'Bestevaer' in order to take advantage of the unique trading conditions the Dutch had during the First World War due to their neutrality. She spent most of her working life as an Irish Sea trading vessel and was preserved as a museum ship in Liverpool, England, from 1984 until her deconstruction in 2024.
↑ Murphy, Francis J (December 1979). "Dublin Trams (1872–1959)". Dublin Historical Record. 33 (1). Old Dublin Society: 2–9. JSTOR30104169. the unique accident which occurred at Ringsend in 1928 when a D.U.T.C. tram was in collision with a ship The Arklow schooner, Cymric
↑ Noonan, Dix. "Lot 1244, 7 Dec 05". Lot details. Retrieved 26 November 2011. quoting London Gazette 16 February 1917, and 11 August 1917
↑ "Mary B Michell – A Terror to U-boats". Daily Leader. Associated Press. 13 January 1919. p.7. Retrieved 19 November 2011. Sailing vessel sank two submarines in one day during the war
↑ Delany, Ruth (1996). The Grand Canal Docks 1796 – 1996. Inland Waterways Association of Ireland. Available from the Waterways Visitor Centre Grand Canal Quay, Dublin 2.
↑ "In Committee on Finance. – Vote No. 59 – Marine Service". Oireachtas Debate. 23 April 1931. Retrieved 26 November 2011. the wreck was entirely due to the bad lighting arrangements on the coast. A lightship, which had been stationed in that vicinity, was taken away by the British Government
↑ "Constitution". About CIL. Commissioners of Irish Lights. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
↑ "From Sail to Steamship to Motor". Follow the Fleet. Irish Maritime Development Office. 2007. Archived from the original on 7 November 2011. Retrieved 19 November 2011. Two famous sailing ships Cymric and Mary B. Mitchell brought vital supplies from overseas during the war years.
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