Sailmaking
( Ellen Pope, Joseph Wheeler )
The ‘ Huguenot Besnards set up in Cork what is estimated to have been the greatest sail cloth industry in the world by the late eighteenth century ’ (De Courcy 1992). Referencing Cork- West Indies trade, Anderson (1961) commented; ‘ Sail cloth was manufactured at Douglas and many a West Indiaman sailed from Cork Harbour with a fine suit of locally-made sails ’ . George Sutton Jr (b.1836, Cork) and Andrew Donovan (b.1834, Kinsale), who were brothers- in-law and sons of Captain George Sutton (b.1804, Clonakilty) and Captain Thade Donovan (b.1805, Kinsale), were partners as sailmakers, chandlers and shipowners in the latter part of the nineteenth century and lived near each other in the St Luke’s area of Cork.
Salt
( Eliza Taylor )
Importation of salt was essential for the Irish provision and fishing industries. Most nineteenth-century sailing ships were of timber construction and prone to leakage, requiring efficient bilge pumps. Failure of pump output to manage an increased influx of water could cause a ship to founder and such was the case with some of the Cork ships in Section 4. Salt was a dangerous cargo: ‘ if the vessel sprung a leak her chances of survival were practically nil, as the salt choked up the pumps and left her helpless ’ (Anderson 1961). Review of Cork shipping records in the nineteenth century documented Liverpool and Cadiz as sources for importation of salt.
Sandlighters
Sandlighters were used extensively to widen and deepen Cork harbour channels prior to the purchase of the first steam dredger by the Cork Harbour Board in 1826. The removed sand was sought by farmers for soil enrichment and so we find sand brought to Ballinacurra c. 1749 ‘for manure’ (Smith 1774). Likewise, Youghal sandlighters carried sand to the Tallow bridge and Kinsale sandlighters carried sand up the Bandon River to Inishannon, returning with turf for Kinsale. ‘They manure with sand, lime and dung’ ( ibid. ). The importance of lighters in reducing the land carriage of sand is emphasized in two commentators of the early nineteenth century. In Townsend’s 1815 Statistical Survey : ‘ Cloghnakilty had not a single lighter fifteen years ago or a quay for landing on. There are now four large quays, each of which has several lighters constantly at work during the summer months ’. Lewis states in his Topographical Dictionary (1837) under Clonakilty: ‘ there were 14 lighters of 17 tonnes burdens each regularly employed in raising and conveying sand to be used in the neighbourhood as manure ’ . The sand was deposited on the 'Sand Quay' in Clonakilty to be bought and collected by farmers from as far away as Ballineen and Enniskeane. In those years lighters usually held 15 – 20 tonnes with a price of 8 – 10 shillings. These sandlighters were specially designed boats for the purpose of dredging sand in shallow water and played a vital role in keeping the narrow channels navigable for the bigger vessels (Kingston 2015). Historical description suggests that the shipping passage between Ring and Clonakilty was improved with introduction of the sandlighter service, possibly enabling the shipbuilding industry in nineteenth-century Clonakilty. The sandlighter industry continued into the twentieth century and in 2018 I had the pleasure of sitting down with 80-year-old John Caldan
370
Powered by FlippingBook