Ballycotton, under Coxswain Patrick Sliney, became legendary when successfully extracting the crew without loss of life from the stricken and drifting Daunt Lightship Comet in brutal hurricane conditions. The Mary Stanford was brought to Ballycotton for restoration in 2018.
Deasys of Clonakilty
( Lark )
The Deasys were shipowners, possibly smugglers and brewers in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries . Deasy’s Quay in Clonakilty was documented as the site of their shipbuilding operations (Kingston 2015). They merit further mention for the ownership and management by Henry Decie (aka Deasy) of the yacht America (see America above in this Appendix).
Digby
( Active )
The town of Digby is located near the Bay of Fundy and was named for Robert Digby (1732 – 1815) who entered the Navy aged just 12 years and at 23 became captain of HMS Solebay (a pattern common also in the Merchant Navy, particularly in mariner families). Robert was appointed an admiral in 1781 and given command of the Atlantic Station.
Economics and Sailing Ships
( Canada, Caledonia )
The safety concerns of undermanned vessels were alluded to by Samuel Kelly in earlier times (Stokes 1925). Shipowners' concern for safe practice was carefully balanced by their concern for cost containment, as was borne out by a Voyage Agreement in 1877 for the barque Canada that both specified the crew size of seventeen and that it should not be exceeded. Owners were aware of the cost benefit of limiting crew size and tables documenting average tons of cargo per crewman were already in use during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It has been further suggested that the improved cost-effectiveness of nineteenth- century vessels was achieved by manipulation of two main variables: increased cargo capacity (ship size) and decreased manpower through modification of rig, or both. Thus, the economic benefit of larger ships in mercantile trade was measured by cargo tonnage to crew ratios. For example, a sailing ship with fore and aft rig, such as a schooner, could be managed efficiently by a small crew and the break point with enlarging the vessel came at approximately 200 tons, when the necessary heavier gear would demand increased manpower, thereby reducing the cargo tonnage to crew ratio (McGowan 1980). A further consideration in ship size was port location in northern latitudes when beach berths might be necessary for cargo transfer and where time was limited by the tide.
Emigrant ships of Cork
( Albion, Albion, Dominica, Lord Sandon , Pandora,
Thomas Hanford, Tottenham, Try Again, Urania )
Many Irish emigrants suffered dreadful conditions and death during their travels to America and Canada during the Famine period (1846 – 55) and spikes in mortality were notable during the Typhus epidemic of 1847 and the Cholera epidemics of 1849 and 1853. The high death rates on so many of the emigrant ships caused all such vessels to be named ‘ Coffin Ships ’.
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