Here is a piece about the Aaron Manby, the first iron steamer to make a sea voyage, and its links to Irish inland waterways transport.
The piece was first published in the rally magazine of the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland Lough Derg Branch in July 2017.
Posted in Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Passenger traffic, People, Sea, Shannon, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Aaron Manby, Charles Napier, Charles Wye Williams, Irish Sea, iron, John Grantham, John Oldham, Liverpool, Shannon, steam
The current issue of the Railway & Canal Historical Society‘s Journal contains an article on the sinking of the passage boat Longford on the Royal Canal in 1845 and the fifteen deaths that resulted. The story has also been told here, starting from this page.
Folk interested in early steam transport in Ireland may wish to know that the latest issue [Vol 41] of The Other Clare, journal of the Shannon Archaeological & Historical Society, has an article, “Mr Paterson’s steamer”, about the Lady of the Shannon, the steamer built on the Clyde in 1816 for James Paterson of Kilrush.
While the steamer and its operations are well known (see for instance the page by Senan Scanlan on the Clare County Library site), a lack of contextual information has meant that the scale of Paterson’s achievement is not widely appreciated. His steam boat was built only four years after PS Comet, Europe’s first commercially viable steamer, began operations on the Clyde. Paterson, who built baths at Kilrush at the same time as he acquired his steamer, may have intended to imitate Henry Bell’s operations.
At the time, most steamers operated on rivers and estuaries, but some undertook longer delivery voyages to new areas of operation in Britain and Europe. But Paterson’s may have been the first to brave the rigours of the Atlantic: it probably travelled west off Ireland’s north coast, and then down the west coast to the Shannon. Ensuring that coal was available along the way must have required a good deal of planning.
Commercially, Paterson’s steamer was not a long-term success, and the possible reasons for its failure are explored briefly in the article.
The Shannon Archaeological & Historical Society does not itself appear to sell its journal online; Scéal Eile Books in Ennis may be able to supply it by post, as may the Celtic Bookshop in Limerick.
Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Passenger traffic, People, Sea, Shannon, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, The turf trade, Tourism, Waterways management, Weather
Tagged 1816, 1817, Comet, estuary, Greenock, Henry Bell, Kilrush, Lady of the Shannon, Limerick, Paterson, Shannon, steam boat, steamer
Then an exceedingly important step was taken, which was the foundation and immediate cause of all the measures which have since been adopted, which was the project for opening the navigation of the Shannon, and draining the adjoining lands.
The primary object of that great work was opening the navigation, but it was put forward as a secondary object to improve what are called the Callow Lands, bordering on the Shannon, that is the alluvial lands adjoining the river, which ought to be valuable meadow lands, and which, properly improved, would be extremely valuable, but which in the then unimproved and neglected state of the river were annually overflowed for several months in the year, and were rendered of little value, affording only occasional pasturage, and uncertain crops of coarse grass.
That was a secondary object of the Shannon works; and the Shannon undertaking was founded on a compromise between those two objects,
namely, between the navigation and the drainage.
The point endeavoured to be attained was, to have the greatest amount of drainage which was consistent with the improvement of the navigation. That great work was ably carried through, and, in my opinion, was perfectly successful.
I do not mean that it is a perfect drainage work, or a perfect navigation work, but that it is the best compromise between the two that could have been effected, and showed how much could be accomplished when drainage only was the object. But however that may be, it furnished the model for, and gave a stimulus to all that has been done since […].
Evidence of Sir Charles Edward Trevelyan KCB, Assistant Secretary to the Treasury, to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Drainage of Lands (Ireland), on 4 June 1852 in Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords appointed to inquire into the Operation of the Acts relating to the Drainage of Lands in Ireland, as administered by the Board of Works; and to report thereon to the House: together with the Minutes of Evidence, and Appendix Session 1852 Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, 22 November 1852 [10]
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Charles Wye Williams, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, People, Politics, Shannon, Sources, Steamers, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged drainage, House of Lords, Ireland, Shannon, Trevelyan
… as we were yesterday, the University of Southampton has made many collections available through archive.org here, which is an approach that works quite well. IIRC, they originally digitised much of the Enhanced Parliamentary Papers Ireland (EPPI) collection, which ended up at QUB, where the wheels seem to be falling off: it is not always reliable and it seems to be impossible to get a PDF of the right document. Some at least of those papers are now available at the archive.org site.
Posted in Economic activities, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Modern matters, Sources
Tagged archive, archive.org, EPPI, Ireland, Southampton
… lies in its library, which has been collecting, digitising and publishing interesting stuff. A quick search found material about the Ballinamore and Ballyconnell drainage district, the drainage of the Shannon and of the Maigue, the dissolution of the Lough and River Erne Drainage and Navigation Board (which I’d never heard of), railways in Donegal and an extraordinarily long poem about a steam boat (page 61, after some other stuff about Cork or Cobh).
Big it up for the Oireachtas librarians.
Posted in Canals, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Modern matters, Non-waterway, Operations, Passenger traffic, People, Politics, Rail, Safety, Sea, Shannon, Sources, Steamers, waterways
Tagged library, Oireachtas
The water has also been kept at a proper level by lowering the river bar at Galway, and constructing a regulating weir there. At some time the navigation channel in the narrow rocky portions of the lake was deepened, the rocks raised; and by buoying and marking with pillars, rocks, and irons, the steamer’s track, it has been rendered navigable from Galway to Cong, and also to Oughterard, and to within a couple of miles of Maam hotel.
All the marks on the eastern side of our upward course from Galway are coloured white, and those on the western side dark.
It will help to give confidence to our Lady friends, who can almost touch some of these marks, triangles, and gridirons, from the Eglinton, to know that all these rocks were lifted by the present captain of the vessel, who was formerly employed here as a diver.
Sir William R Wilde MD Lough Corrib, its shores and islands: with notices of Lough Mask McGlashan & Gill, Dublin; Longmans, Green, and Co, London 1867
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Passenger traffic, People, Safety, Sources, Steamers, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Cong, Corrib, diver, Eglinton, Galway, lady friends, Lough Mask, Maam, navigation marks, Oughterard, rocks, Sir William Wilde
I was thinking of buying a (secondhand) copy of Juliana Adelman and Éadaoin Agnew eds Science and technology in nineteenth-century Ireland Four Courts Press, Dublin 2011. But, even though the secondhand copy was much, much cheaper even than the publishers’ reduced price, I thought I should check what I’d be getting for my money. I therefore had a look at the contents list, which I reproduce here having nicked it from the publishers’ web page:
The list of contents
Is it just me, or is there a big gap there? How can you discuss nineteenth-century technology without an extended discussion of steam power, whether in ships, on railways, for drainage or in mills and other manufactories?
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Charles Wye Williams, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, Passenger traffic, People, Rail, Sea, Shannon, shannon estuary, Sources, Steamers, The turf trade, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Ireland, nineteenth century, power, science, steam, technology
The Royal Canal’s origins have never been satisfactorily explained: a later legend even seeks to explain its origins in an obscure dispute between a retired shoemaker and other members of the Grand Canal Company. But in fact its origins were political. As the Grand Canal Company was taken over by the conservative La Touche clique, the opposition launched a new venture: its patron was the duke of Leinster; businessmen and opposition politicians rallied to it; and Gleadowes, rivals of the La Touches, were bankers to the company. In other words, there was to be a left-wing as well as a right-wing way to reach the Shannon. Almost symbolically on its more northerly route to the Shannon, it passed through the duke of Leinster’s land.
L M Cullen “Politics and Institutions, 1731–1835” in Economy, Trade and Irish Merchants at home and abroad, 1600–1988 Four Courts Press, Dublin 2012
Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Shannon, Sources, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Dublin, duke of leinster, Gleadowes, La Touche, Royal Canal, Shannon
The navigation of the River Inny from Ballynacarrow upriver to Lough Sheelin.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Forgotten navigations, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Passenger traffic, People, Safety, Shannon, Sources, The turf trade, waterways, Waterways management
Tagged Athlone, Ballinalack, Ballycorkey, Ballymahon, Ballynacarrow, barge, Baronstown, bog, Camagh Bridge, Clonava, Coolnahay, Coolure, Derryvaragh, Directors General of Inland Navigation, Edward O'Regan, eel, Erskine Nicol, Finnea, Float Bridge, John Killaly, Kilbixy, Kinale, Longford, Lough Iron, Lough Ree, mill, Moygoish, New Port, Newcastle, quarry, Quinn's Bridge, Royal Canal, Sackville Hamilton, Shannon, Sheelin, Shrule, Summerville, Sunderlin, Taarmonbarry, timber, turf, turf boat, Turf cot, Westmeath, Whitworth Aqueduct, wooden bridge
Irish waterways history