Greyhound (1747 ship)

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History
British-Red-Ensign-1707.svgGreat Britain
NameGreyhound
Namesake Greyhound
OwnerMrs. Alley
BuilderWhitby
Launched1747 [1]
FateWrecked 12 December 1770

Greyhound was a coastal trading vessel launched in Whitby in 1747 or possibly before that was wrecked in a storm off the coast of County Sligo on 12 December 1770. [2] Lloyd's List reported on 1 January 1771 that Greyhound, Douthard, master, had been lost at Sligo while on the way from Galway to Whitby. [3]

Contents

The wreck has been known locally as The butter boat. [2]

Vessel

Greyhound was owned by a Mrs Alley in 1747 and was a transport in 1748. [1] [4] [5] [6]

Wreck

Greyhound had been caught in a storm off the coast of County Mayo. [2] The crew could not get shelter in Broadhaven Bay and were forced to anchor near Erris Head. [2] The crew abandoned ship, then realised they had forgotten the cabin boy. [2] Some of the crew, along with volunteers and crew of a passing ship Mary, from Galway, returned to rescue him and managed to get aboard Greyhound. [2] The storm was so bad that the vessel was driven ashore at Streedagh Ppoint, where 20 of the 21 on board drowned. [2] The sole survivor had stayed on board and when the vessel settled on the beach he alerted people, but the others had already been lost. [2]

Speculation on identity

Over time, the identity of the wreck had been lost, leading to speculation that it might have been part of The Spanish Armada, or a tourist boat. [2]

Identification

Oak timbers from the wreck were dated to some time after 1712 in the first half of the 18th century by dendrochronologist Dr. Aoife Daly. [2] [7] The National Monuments Service said that the timber was probably sourced from the English midlands or Yorkshire. [7] This was cross-referenced to a database of over a hundred shipwrecks off the Sligo coast in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Irish Folklore Commission, and newspaper accounts, leading to the vessel being identified. [2]

See also

Citations

  1. 1 2 Weatherill (1908), p. 54.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Magnier, Eileen (16 December 2020). "True identity of Streedagh beach 'Butter Boat' uncovered". RTÉ News . Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  3. ↑ "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. No. 185. 1 January 1771. hdl:2027/uc1.c3049056 . Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  4. ↑ "Sligo shipwreck revealed to be Whitby Greyhound boat". BBC News. 17 December 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  5. ↑ O'Riordan, Ellen (17 December 2020). "Mystery of Sligo shipwreck solved 250 years after it sank". The Irish Times . Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  6. ↑ "Shipwreck mystery solved – 250 years to the week it sank". gov.ie. 17 December 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  7. 1 2 Siggins, Lorna (17 December 2020). "Sligo Shipwreck Mystery Solved – 250 Years After it Sank". afloat.ie. Retrieved 17 December 2020.

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References

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