Category Archives: Engineering and construction

Saunderson’s Sheugh

Posted on Wednesday 3 December 2014 | 9 comments

The Minister for  Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht [who is also a Fine Gael TD for Cavan–Monaghan] spoke at the meeeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht on 25 November 2014. She said:

In addition to progressing North-South co-operation, my key priority is progressing the first stage of the Ulster Canal project from upper Lough Erne to Castle Saunderson, near Belturbet, County Cavan. I am working on this with the Government and other key partners, including the North-South Ministerial Council and Waterways Ireland. […]

It sounds, then, as if the minister intends to get work started on the Clones Sheugh, but only as far as Castle Saunderson, where there is a scouting establishment. The route from Quivvy Lough (location of the Quivvy Marina) is along the Finn River; the first 5.5 km of the route would be in the river and the last 8.5 km to Clones in a canal. The route to Castle Saunderson would, I imagine, require dredging and the removal of rocks as well as work on [or replacement of] Derrykerrib Bridge [I have not read all the details].

It would, of course, be faster to get there by road, but no doubt lots of people will travel from Foreign Parts for the excitement of seeing Castle Saunderson from the water and paying tribute to the memory of a stout Orangeman and founder of the Irish Unionist Alliance.

No mention of the treasure-hunting group who are to find the money, but there’s an election in the offing so money won’t be a problem. Until afterwards.

Quivvy to Castle Saunderson [OSI ~1840]

Quivvy to Castle Saunderson [OSI ~1840]

The minister also said:

Regarding the Ulster Canal, which stretches from upper Lough Erne to Castle Saunderson, we hope to get the project started on that section because that is the one part of the inland waterway system that has not been developed. If we get that done, the Ulster Canal will connect into Lough Neagh. That means we will have a complete network of waterways in Ireland, which is very important. It is also a cross-Border project, and there is a peace dividend in terms of that project. It is very important in terms of cross-Border relationships. It is one shovel-ready project that can be progressed.

The minister said that “a complete network of waterways in Ireland […] is very important”. She did not say why and I can think of no possible economic justification for the creation of such a “network”. Nor is it clear what the “peace dividend” is. But the phrase that evoked most terror is “shovel-ready project”, which I take to mean something that might buy votes in the next election.

The minister’s predecessor, Éamon Ó Cuív, a Fianna Fáil TD for Galway West, said:

I welcome the Minister’s continuation of the work on the Ulster canals. There was quite a bit of work done on that in my time and I was very anxious to see it progress on a step-by-step basis. I was going to bring it to Clones, I am not sure whether the place the Minister mentioned is further or nearer than that.

The minister interjected:

It is not as far as Clones. We will start it anyway and we will get it there.

And Mr Ó Cuív continued:

I take the view that even if she were to get it half a mile, we should just nibble away at it until we get it finished. It is of strategic national importance and if we could connect Coleraine, where I was the other day and where my poor car is getting mended, all the way down the coast through Lough Neagh down to Shannon and back up the canals, it would be a fantastic facility for the island. I will not be heard complaining in any way that it is in the Minister’s constituency – that just happens to be a happy coincidence in this case.

Actually, although both Quivvy Marina and Castle Saunderson are in the Free State, most of the River Finn route is in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

It seems that I must cease to speak of the Clones Sheugh: it’s Saunderson’s Sheugh. I suppose that, if reaching Castle Saunderson were enough to shut up the Shinners, who seem to be madly keen on Sheughery for some reason that is hidden from me, that might be a bargain: it would certainly be better than going all the way to Clones.

My OSI logo and permit number for website

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Natural heritage, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, Tourism, Ulster Canal, Uncategorized, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

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Down to the sea in steps

Posted on Monday 1 December 2014 | 3 comments

On 28 January 1907 James Robinson Kilroe [near the bottom of the page] of H M Geological Survey read to the Royal Irish Academy a paper on “The River Shannon: its present course and geological history” [Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Vol XXVI Section B No 8 Hodges, Figgis & Co Ltd, Dublin; Williams & Norgate, London 1907]. I thought that Plate V was interesting.

Shannon Derg to sea

Plate V

Kilroe wrote:

It will be perceived that instead of the river being shallow over the unyielding Silurian slate-rock, set almost vertically, and striking across the river-course, it is deeper than over the limestone of Lough Derg, and much deeper than over the comparatively easily eroded Old Red Sandstone at Killaloe. The river-bed actually drops below the datum line above the town, while at the town it is 100 feet above datum.

Old Red Sandstone strata are here to be seen in the river-bank, and Silurian rocks in situ in its bed. A barrier is thus formed, partly of Silurian, and partly of Old Red Sandstone rocks, which without the artificial impounding weir would retain the waters of Lough Derg to a depth of some 104 feet opposite Derrycastle — two miles above Killaloe.

One might have expected to find a fairly level shallow bed from Killaloe northward, a sudden drop from slate-rock to the sandstone floor, and  a pronounced wide, well-formed valley in the limestone district southward to Limerick.

None of these elements exist; instead, we have the formidable barrier at Killaloe, naturally damming up a considerable depth of water in Lough Derg, and the river falling away southward by a series of rapids which correspond with drops in the canal, south of O’Briensbridge […], along an alternative course, possibly one used by a branch of the Shannon.

Here is an extract from the Plate V map, showing the steps of the (pre-Ardnacrusha) Limerick Navigation between Lough Derg and the sea.

Shannon Killaloe to Limerick

The steps of the canal (click to enlarge)

Upstream

Kilroe wrote of Lough Ree:

The waters of Lough Ree stood some 10 feet higher within recent times than they now do, as proved by evidence of solution, with under-cutting of limestone blocks, to be seen about five miles north-west of Athlone, close to the railway, in the townland of Cornaseer.

Under these conditions the lake must have been, perhaps, twice its width, and for a considerable period. Its ancient surface-level is clearly indicated by the caps of the mushroom-shaped blocks.

And of the Shannon between Lough Ree and Lough Derg:

The extreme flatness of the river between Athlone and Meelick is such that, consequent upon the completion of the Suck Drainage-works in 1892, it was found that the callows along the Shannon above the confluence of the Suck at Shannonbridge were much more liable to sudden and frequent floodings than they previously had been.

The more rapid discharge of the Suck waters into the Shannon, before ordinary extra water had time to pass away, had the effect of modifying the regimen of the main stream to an extent which resulted in an action at law [La Touche -v- The Suck Drainage Board].

I have found only one account of that case, in the Freeman’s Journal of 1 July 1893. The plaintiffs, Messrs Harrison and La Touche, owned land at Cappaleitrim, on the west bank of the Shannon above Shannonbridge. They said that the actions of the Suck Drainage Board had caused their lands to be flooded:

[…] that the defendants brought water from the Suck into the Shannon, containing a drainage of 40 miles, with such velocity and such volume that the Shannon was penned back, and that the back water caused the damage to the lands complained of.

[…] The jury disagreed and were discharged.

I don’t know whether the matter ever again came before a judge.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Safety, Shannon, Sources, The cattle trade, waterways, Waterways management, Weather

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Euroloot

Posted on Saturday 29 November 2014 | 2 comments

I see there’s a new scheme for Euroloot: a €300 billion investment fund to save the European economies. Actually it seems there is only €5 billion in real money and Constantin Gurdgiev is properly scathing. It will be interesting to see whether Ireland can make the Clones Sheugh fit within the criteria.

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Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Ulster Canal

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Maritime history

Posted on Tuesday 25 November 2014 | Leave a comment

There is to be a maritime history conference in Cork next weekend:

Maritime History Conference to take place in University College Cork 28/29 November

Maritime History Conference‘A safe place for ships’: Cork, Ireland, Europe and the Sea

University College CorkFriday, 28 November – Saturday, 29 November

Main Campus: Electrical Engineering BLDG, L-1, UCC

Details here; h/t AD.

 

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Non-waterway, Operations, Sea, Steamers

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Royal Canal drawbridge

Posted on Friday 21 November 2014 | 3 comments

According to the Freeman’s Journal of 5 April 1837, Henry Garnett was

superintendent or agent to the èxtensive and highly respectable firm of Purcell and Jameson, coach proprietors.

Their offices were in Sackville Street. On Sunday 2 April 1837 Mr Garnett had been on his way home to [Royal] Canal Terrace when

as he ascended the hill at the bend of Upper Dominick-street he met a man habited in a dark cloak, and having a cap on his head, who, after looking him steadfastly in the face, opened the cloak, and fired at him.

The man was not more than a yard away, so close that the powder scorched Garnett’s hand, but the bullet struck a suspender button, wounding but not killing the victim.

The scene of the crime

The scene of the crime [OSI ~1840]

William Cagburn heard the shot and also heard Garnett calling out

I am shot — stop the murderer, he has run in the direction of the aqueduct.

Cagburn gave chase:

He instantly pursued, crossed the draw-bridge, and came under the aqueduct, when he saw the prisoner running along the Phibsborough road.

Cagburn and the watchman seized the man; the watchman took two pistols from him and another witness found a third, discharged, pistol nearby on the pathway.

The prisoner, Christopher Clanchy, had been a road maker for eight years. The Freeman’s Journal said:

While a contractor for repairing part of the Ashbourne road, in the employment of Messrs Bourne, he [Clanchy] was allowed to travel free by Mr Purcell’s coaches, and Mr Garnett in the discharge of his duty having occasion to withdraw this privilege, hence proceeding his desire to be revenged. […] We are happy to state Mr Garnett is not likely to suffer any inconvenience from the injury.

But of more interest for this site is the route taken by William Cagburn. What or where was the drawbridge he crossed?

Foster Aqueduct

Upper Dominick Street and the Foster Aqueduct [OSI ~1840]

I haven’t come across [or at least I haven’t noticed] any previous mention of a drawbridge in this area. I presume that it was across the canal. And, looking closely at the map extract above …

Possible site of drawbridge

Possible drawbridge [OSI ~1840]

… I see what might be a bridge just to the left of the F of Foster. It shows up more clearly on the black and white OSI map. At Clanchy’s trial before the Commission of Oyer and Terminer, reported in the Freeman’s Journal of Monday 26 June 1837, the bridge was said to be a wooden bridge; George Cayburn [probably the William Cagburn named in the earlier report] described it as “the swinging bridge”.

Perhaps Mallet’s Insistent Pontoon merely replaced an old nuisance with a new.

Clanchy, incidentally, was found guilty: there were suggestions that he was insane, but the jury rejected them. Baron Richards said [Freeman’s Journal 1 July 1837]

The court had no discretion but to pass the extreme sentence of the law, that he should be hanged by the neck […].

Purcell, Garnett’s employer, had requested a commutation of his sentence; Richards said that it was open to Clanchy to memorial for a commutation, and the court would put no obstacle in his way; indeed it hoped he would meet the mercy “which he would have denied his intended victim”. I do not know what happened to Clanchy.

Update December 2016

The Warder and Dublin Weekly Mail of 26 September 1835 mentions the bridge:

Monday night a respectable looking elderly man fell into the Royal Canal Basin, at the Broadstone, on the Dominick-street side, within a few yards of the draw bridge.

A canal employee called Keybourne hauled Mr White out within a few minutes, but he was DOA at the Richmond Hospital.

This seems to confirm that the bridge was moveable and was where the OSI map suggests.

From the BNA

My OSI logo and permit number for website

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Posted in Ashore, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Ireland, Operations, People, Sources, waterways, Waterways management

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A concession to new technology

Posted on Thursday 20 November 2014 | Leave a comment

It appears that these new-fangled railways are here to stay, displacing the passage-boat and the mail-coach, the Scotch cart and the lumber boat.

Accordingly, I have rearranged my small number of railway-related pages under a top-level heading of their own.

I have added a new railway page, about the Lundy Island Railway and Colonization Company, from the Dublin Evening Mail of 2 May 1845. Gerald M King has produced stamps for Lundy, including Railway Parcel Stamps, but it is not clear whether they depict any of the engines or rolling stock described in the Mail and there are few other sources of information about the railway.

I have tried to explain as many of the references as I could, but some are still obscure to me and I would welcome comments from those expert in Irish religious conflicts of the 1840s (as well as those knowledgeable about railways and other technology of the period).

 

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Rail, Sea, Sources

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The Black Bridge at Plassey

Posted on Tuesday 18 November 2014 | 3 comments

I am repeating here a point I made in response to a comment on this page. I do so because the point is, I think, an important one: some readers don’t check the comments and might miss this.

I have an imperfect copy [with some lines missing] of an indenture made on 8 July 1949 between the Minister for Finance and Limerick County Council under which the Council leased from the Minister

… all that those parts of the lands of Garraun and Sreelane on which Plassey Bridge abuts on both banks of the River Shannon and the site and piles of said Plassey Bridge together with said Plassey Bridge […].

I am not a lawyer, so my interpretation may be misleading, but I think that there are two points of interest.

The first is that, under the indenture, the Council is obliged to “well and sufficiently repair cleanse maintain amend and keep the hereby demised premises”, which includes the bridge. The Council is also required to “use the said demised premises as a public highway”.

The second is that, if the Council fails to do so, the Minister, and his agents the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland, are entitled (after giving due notice) “to enter upon the hereby demised premises and to execute and to do the necessary repairs and works and the Lessees [ie Limerick Councy Council] shall repay the expenses of such repairs to the Lessor on demand […]“.

As far as I can see, Limerick County Council is in breach of its agreement with the Minister for Finance, and that Minister is entitled to repair the bridge and charge the Council for the cost.

If only there were a Minister for Finance who had an interest in Limerick (or in bridges) ….

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Safety, Scenery, Shannon, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management, Weather

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A little rain goes a long way

Posted on Monday 17 November 2014 | Leave a comment

Here are some water level readings from Athlone Weir. I’ve taken them from the OPW’s very useful water levels site, where you can monitor levels from the comfort of your own armchair. [If only there were a gauge at Killaloe ….]

At Athlone, staff gauge zero is 35.360m above Poolbeg datum (from 18 Oct 2003). I chopped the bottoms off the first two graphs. The first one shows the level for 35 days to 30 September 2014; I presume that the level of Lough Ree was being reduced to enable it to hold some of the autumn’s rainfall.

Athlone Weir 20140930

Athlone Weir 35 days to 30 September 2014 (truncated)

Here’s the graph for the 35 days to 15 October 2014.

Athlone Weir 20141015

Athlone Weir 35 days to 15 October 2014 (truncated)

Then, in October, the level began to rise again. By 30 October, it was back to about 2.1 metres, roughly the starting point on the first of the graphs above.

Athlone Weir 20141030

Athlone Weir 35 days ro 30 October 2014

And since then it has continued to rise.

Athlone Weir 20141117

Athlone Weir 35 days to 17 November 2014

Met Éireann’s weather summary for October 2014 [PDF] has this chart:

Met Eireann weather Oct 2014

Met Éireann rainfall October 2014

It says:

Rainfall: wet conditions nearly everywhere

Monthly rainfall totals were above-average nearly everywhere with the exception of stations in coastal areas in the Northwest and West and in parts of the Midlands. Percentage of Long-Term Average (LTA) values ranged from 81% at Gurteen to 161% at Johnstown Castle, which recorded it wettest October since 2002.

Fermoy (Moore Park) reported 135% of its LTA with 153.6 mm and its wettest October in 10 years. The wettest days were mainly the 3rd, 5th and 28th, with the month’s highest daily rainfall reported on the 5th at Cork Airport with 38.6 mm, its wettest October day in five years. Mullingar reported its wettest October day in 12 years on the 28th with 26.4 mm. The number of wet days (days with 1 mm or more rainfall) ranged from 12 at Casement Aerodrome to 24 at Valentia Observatory and Claremorris, with Claremorris reporting its highest number of October wet days since 1973.

Use of the OPW charts is licensed under Directive 2003/98/EC [PDF] of the European Parliament and of the Council on the re-use of public sector information. Met Éireann allows use of “the web pages, and the information contained within them, for private and non-commercial purposes, for teaching, and for research […] is allowed subject to the condition that the source of the information is always credited in connection with its use”.

 

 

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Posted in Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Operations, Safety, Shannon, Sources, waterways, Waterways management, Weather

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Recent developments in boat design

Posted on Tuesday 11 November 2014 | Leave a comment

Mr Busk’s elastic paddle

A small Steam Boat (apparently about fifty feet long, and six or seven feet wide), belonging to Mr Wm Busk, of Pall-mall, was exhibited on Friday on the Thames. The boat was propelled easily and rapidly through the water, both with and against the tide, by a very small steam power, without the use of any paddle-wheel, by means of an elastic paddle, or fin, recently invented by Mr Busk, which was subject to a reciprocating motion wholly under water, and acting equally both ways.

When the action is not brought too near the surface, no motion seems to be occasioned in the water which could at all prejudice canal banks; and as the range of the fins, by their being placed in the narrow after-part of a boat, admits of being confined completely within the depth and breadth of the boat, no impediment need be presented to the passing of locks or bridges. The invention appears to be extremely simple and efficacious, and of very ready application to vessels of all classes and dimensions.

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette 5 May 1825

Canal steam navigation

Experiments of rather a novel character have for some weeks been in progress on the Forth and Clyde Canal, to ascertain the merits of an invention for propelling boats on canals at greater velocities than have hitherto been attained either by steam or horses. The principle on which the experiments are founded may be thus described.

A light chain is laid in the canal, from one extremity to the other, and firmly fixed at each end. To effect motion by this means, a twin boat is used, in the trough of which a grooved wheel (receiving the chain) is made to revolve by a steam engine placed in the boat. From this description it will be evident that, as the wheel revolves, the boat is drawn forward at a speed equivalent to the power, or at precisely the same velocity as the periphery of the grooved wheel.

At first sight there appear to be several objections to the plan, not the least of which are turning the bends, and meeting and passing general craft on the canal. The experiments made on Friday the 29th ult, however, fully prove the facility with which the vessel can be steered from side to side of the canal; describing, at the same time, quicker curves than any to be met with on the Forth and Clyde navigation.

On the whole the experiments, though conducted under great disadvantages, were highly satisfactory, and such as to induce further trials. A speed of 8¼ miles per hour was attained, and there was little doubt in the minds of those who witnessed the trials, that, with a lighter engine, and a boat drawing less water, a higher velocity might be acquired at a cheaper rate than is now produced by horses.

It will be proper here to observe that it is not intended to carry passengers in the same boat that contains the engine and propelling apparatus.

Chester Chronicle 12 September 1834

India Rubber Boat

An American journal says that a Mr Caleb Williams, of New York, has just constructed a boat of this material, and that he has applied for a patent for his invention.

Huntingdon, Bedford & Peterborough Gazette 4 July 1835

 

 

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Operations, Sources, Steamers, waterways

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Any old iron

Posted on Tuesday 11 November 2014 | Leave a comment

Amongst the objects of iron found during the Shannon Navigation Works, 1843–48, and presented by the Shannon Commissioners to the Academy, an iron sword (figure 1) is of much interest. It is of the Halstatt class, and is, I believe, the only iron example of that class which has been found in Ireland.

A label attached to the sword states that it was “taken up in the buckets of the ‘C’ dredger” out of the bed of the Shannon above the new bridge of Athlone, August, 1847.

It is incomplete, and has lost much of its substance from rust, especially along the edges. The form, however, can be distinguished. It is made on the pattern of the leaf-shaped bronze sword. The width of the blade increases towards the point, and the handle-plate was of the flat form of the bronze swords.

Fig 1 Iron sword found in the Shannon [rotated]

Fig 1 Iron sword found in the Shannon [rotated]. Top end to right-hand side

This latter feature is certain, and is the most definite in the specimen. The edge of the handle-plate is intact for a short length at the right side; and the remains of a rivet-hole can be seen on the expanded portion at the hilt.

The curve in the blade does not appear to be intentional, but to be due to a bend it has received about one-third up; the line of the ridge is straight to and beyond the bend. This ridge along the centre of the blade is not a very usual feature; but it occurs occasionally on the bronze swords, and on an iron Halstatt sword found in Poitou, figured by the Abbé H Breuil (Revue Archéologique 1903 II p57).

This latter sword was found at Mignaloux-Beauvoir, near Poitiers, in 1836, but had remained unnoticed in the Museum at Poitiers until the paper mentioned. It measures in its present state 45 cm. The Irish fragment is 18½ inches long (47 cm); so the two swords were much of the same length.

A fairly large number of the bronze swords of the Halstatt type have been found in Ireland. There are twenty in the collection, and six of the winged chaps or scabbard ends of that period.

The occurrence in Ireland of the type in iron is therefore of considerable interest. The somewhat slender look of the sword and the ridge disposes me to regard it as late in the series; it must, however, rank as probably the earliest type of the iron sword which has been found in this country.

The early iron sword with flat handle-plate had been found in considerable numbers east and south of Poitou in Berry, Bourgogne, and in Lot. But its extension to the west had not been known till the example figured by the Abbé Breuil. It should be noted that Poitiers is close to the old line of communication between Ireland and the Continent by way of the Loire valley.

Illness has prevented me from placing before the Academy the archaeological evidence I have collected bearing on the question of early intercourse between Gaul and Ireland; but I should like to state as a preliminary note, that certain forms of bronze caldrons and types of pottery at the close of the Bronze Age, also of types of iron spear-heads and other objects of the La Tene period, may be advanced in support of the historical tradition in our tales of a settlement of Gauls in Leinster under Labraidh Loinngsech, at a date placed perhaps too early by the Four Masters (BC 541), and from whose “broad blue spears” the name of the province of Leinster (Laighen) is derived.

George Coffey “Early iron sword found in Ireland” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Vol XXVI Section C No 3 February 1906 Hodges, Figgis & Co Ltd, Dublin; Williams & Norgate, London

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Restoration and rebuilding, Shannon, Sources, waterways

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