Schooner that went aground on Sandymount Strand in March 1937
On Thursday, March 11th, 1937, a severe storm, one of the fiercest experienced for many years, swept across Ireland. Heavy snowfalls were reported from all parts of the country, leaving in its wake a trail of desolation and ruin. Traffic was paralysed and widespread power cuts were experienced in many areas. The driving force of the easterly gale lashed the whole of the East coast and the Port of Dublin was stormbound. The Irish Times reported that Captain JR Bulmer of the RMS Hibernia described the seas breaking on the Burford Bank, off the entrance to Dublin Bay, as the worst in his thirty-seven years’ experience.
One of the victims of the storm was the 100-ton schooner Solway Lass, registered in Dumfries, Scotland and owned by Captain Kristian Andersen of Portmadoc (now Porthmadog), North Wales. The schooner had left Garston, Liverpool, on Wednesday with a cargo of coal for the Wicklow Corn Company. During the night the storm came up and the vessel was hindered by the poor visibility before the mainsail gave way. They decided to try and make for Dublin and did succeed in picking up the light from the Kish lightship. Soon afterwards, the mail boat, RMS Cambria passed and sighted the distressed schooner. Captain Turner of the RMS Cambria contacted the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Master, Captain R McGurk, and his report said that he had passed a vessel at about ten minutes to five. She was running before the gale in mountainous sea, with “bare poles,” but was flying no signals.
With the auxiliary engine running, the schooner was making its way for the entrance to the Liffey and about two hundred yards off the Poolbeg lighthouse, the engine stopped. Nothing could be done and shortly after the schooner grounded at about half-past-seven.
The Dún Laoghaire lifeboat, Dunleary, received word at about 12 o’clock that a schooner was ashore between the Pigeon House and Sandymount. Under Coxswain, James Redmond, the lifeboat put to sea but could not get near the schooner because of the falling tide and returned to Dún Laoghaire, berthing the lifeboat in the coal harbour and stood by in case they were called out again. Efforts were also made to shoot a lifeline to the vessel but it failed owing to the distance from shore.
Onboard the stricken vessel, the crew of three were safe. Captain Kristian Andersen, aged 60, originally from Sweden but a resident of Portmadoc for many years, was the skipper and joint-owner with his wife. There were two other crew members: William Payne, the mate from Portmadoc and sixteen-year-old Joseph Cummins, the cook, from Garston. It was the first time that Joseph Cummins had been at sea. When interviewed, the skipper could not recall the name of the young cook as he had only joined the schooner on Wednesday in Garston.
A Special Correspondent for the Irish Times waded out on the falling tide to the schooner and reported that there was much evidence of the intensity of the storm. Windows around the small wheelhouse had been smashed in, the tattered mainsail had been made fast, and with it was the boom, which had been broken in two pieces. From Irishtown Barracks, Civic Guard John Conway splashed through the five or six hundred yards of shallow water to obtain the skipper’s statement. Hobblers from Ringsend also made their way out to the distressed vessel but when they were unable to render any assistance, they soon left. The crew remained on board throughout the day and were finally persuaded to leave by the Inspector of the Coast Life-saving Service, Captain Henry Freyne. The Mission to Seamen in Eden Quay provided overnight accommodation to the crew.
Fears were expressed that the Solway Lass would become a total shipwreck, but these worries were unfounded. The vessel was driven further inshore during Friday’s tides but sustained no damage. Captain Andersen and his crew returned to the vessel at low tide. They put out anchors to the stern of the vessel, and the captain’s hope was that he could “kedge” the Solway Lass off the sands, using the ship’s winches to drag her back on the tides towards the anchors that he had set.
About forty to fifty tons of coal were removed by horse-drawn carts to lighten the load. The auxiliary engine was repaired. At high water on Sunday a swell lifted Solway Lass off the sands and she was turned around facing seaward. Later she was left high and dry on the sands, but newspaper reports stated that she should be able to move off on the next high tide.
Online histories of the Solway Lass always state that the homes in the Sandymount area had many a warm fireside for the following winter. These remarks suggest that not all the coal, which was taken from the vessel to lighten it, was re-loaded when the vessel finally got off the sands and made its way into Dublin Port. We will never know the answer and perhaps the vessel might have been better named as Solway Loss.
On St Patrick’s Day, Solway Lass was refloated under her own power at high water and made her way to the North Wall to take on the coal that had been taken off to lighten the vessel, before completing her voyage to Wicklow.
The events at Sandymount in 1937 were just one of many momentous incidents in the life and times of the Solway Lass, that have spanned almost a century and quarter.
Sadly Captain Andersen died of carbon monoxide poisoning just a year later. However, on a happier note, the Solway Lass is still sailing, now located in Australia as a beautifully restored tall ship.
