19th Century Cork Sutton Mariners, Sailing Ships and Crews

NELLIE FLEMING

Place and date built: Tonnage/ Vessel type:

Prince Edward Island 1894

120t; Schooner

Home port:

Youghal

Owner: Activity: Master:

Martin Fleming Coastal trade

1898 – 1913 David Donovan b.1862 (Youghal)* 1899 William Ahern b.1855 (Youghal)* 1899 Thomas Ahern b.1880 (Youghal)*

Mate:

Seaman:

Fate of ship:

‘On 18 -12-1913 the collier Nellie Fleming bound for Youghal with 250 tons of coal went aground on the Black Rock off Curragh in Ardmore Bay. Captain Donovan and the crew stayed aboard though lifeboats and coastguards were at hand. They came ashore the next day. The ship was badly holed, and the wind rose before the vessel could be lightened and re- floated. The coal was purchased by locals and sold by the cartload. The ship floated in the Spring tides and was washed onto the strand at the Ardmore end of the Curragh beach. She lies half buried in th e sand’ (Bourke). While the Nellie Fleming was wrecked early in the twentieth century, Sutton family members in Ardmore learned of her demise and that of other wrecks along that coastline, from local fishermen who retold these stories with great familiarity, though often separated by generations from original witnesses. The Flemings of Youghal also owned Citizen and Dei Gratia (see Dei Gratia and discovery of the phantom ship Mary Celeste ). Martin Fleming named Nellie Fleming for his daughter and would purchase the famed schooner Kathleen and May in 1908 (named for his other daughters) as a sister ship. Captain David Donovan was a son of Captain Thomas Donovan (b.1831, Courtmacsherry) who had a close relationship to the Suttons (see the Asiatic ). While Nellie Fleming was a Youghal ship, she was also logged in trade up the Blackwater River in 1902 and 1904 under Captain Donovan. The Flemings had a second Nellie Fleming , a beautiful and much photographed schooner, which met a disastrous end in February 1936 with the loss of her entire crew and was the source of ‘ phantom ship ’ sightings in Ardmore in the days prior to her loss (Lincoln). *IMNCL; CLIP; Sutton Family History; Bourke, Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast ; O’Brien, Blackwater and Bride ; Lincoln, Phantoms Of The Sea - The Ardmore Journal - Waterford County Museum (waterfordmuseum.ie)

Additional information:

References:

235