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Irish Ships and Shipping

Photos from Gerry Farrell
1975

Crossing the line 1975

Photos from R/O Tim O'Connell
1977

Photos from R/O Tim O'Connell
1977

Photos from R/O Tim O'Connell
1977

Christmas day 1976
John Buggy, 2nd.cook?, galley boy?, Bennie Dorgan, Richie Pullen, Jim Byrne, Bertie Coogan.

New Years day, Sydney, Australia 1977
Eamonn Frampton.

Irish Shipping Ltd.

Crew and Ships

Irish Larch

Irish Larch Sydney Harbour Ist. Jan 1977. T.Dunne

Irish Larch 1974-76 Tom Fitzgerald (February 2013)


Irish Larch 1979 Willie Richardson (November 2012)

	Conor.Vaughan Irish Larch 1982 (November 2012)

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I have come across a couple of photos which were taken in April 82 when the Irish larch was in the Hydundai drydock in Ulsan in Korea.

We had finished discharging in Japan and getting ready to leave for the dry dock. As we were testing the engines, a local fisherman on the quay wall started to wave frantically to the Third Mate on the bridge. It transpired that we had lost about two thirds of one of the blades of the manganese bronze propeller. We had no idea when or where this had happened as we had not experienced and abnormal vibrations while on passage.

At the dry dock the Koreans only suggestion was to fit the spare cast iron propeller. This was never an option and the taper was badly corroded anyway. Eventually a crew from Mitsui in Japan flew over, measured everything in sight and cast a new section which they flew over and welded onto the remains of the old blade. They then ground everything down to the original tolerances and completed a magnificent job. As far as I am aware the propeller was still intact up to the time the ship was sold.

two photos which show the Mitsui people working on the propeller and one which is not that clear but shows the broken propeller blade.

The other photos show engines being built under licence and give some idea of the scale of a marine engine before it is located in the hull and also a photo of a hull under construction.

Erc Kealy -August 2012

	cathedral engine.	crankshaft	hull.
prop1.	prop 2

Irish Larch R.Saunders (April 2012)
	Larch arriving Dublin port	Larch at South Quay Dublin port		Mark Devlin & Michael Brennan Irish Larch Australia Jan 1977. Mark Devlin (March 2012)

George Humphries This trip on the Larch in 1975 and we joined her in Tilbury then drydocked in Holland before going in ballast to Tampa where we loaded phosphate for Vishakhapatnam in India via Durban where we took on bunkers & stores then after discharging & Loading ore for Japan via Singapore. We took on bunkers our first port of call was Whyalla in south Australia then Port Kembla & Newcastle in the photos in the crew bar are deck hands Rory Fawsitt Tony Cafrey AKA (T C) Mick Bonnie & a sister of Gerry Mc Guinness who was also deck hand, others include a family Denis Grange, a Dublin man living in Sydney, the photo shows his wife Flo & their family then there is the bosun Vincent Murphy with Rory Fawsitt on the poop deck the bosun cannot see Rory then on the boat Deck are Gerry Mc Guinness T,C. Mick Bonnie. George Humphries 2011 (R.I.P. 2012)	Newcastle Australia, there is my eldest sister Marie with her two kids Warren & Elaine Tony Byrne & myself 1975
This one is interesting because both men Paddy O Brien aka (Mero) nearest and Tony Byrne aka (Jack Tar) were on board when we first went to Aussie. She stayed out there for three years. Later on Tony Byrne rejoined her then jumped her in Port Kembla he was having a ball then poor oul Mero died on board the Maple in 1977 she was on passage from Vancouver to Australia the poor man was buried at sea God be good to him The chief /cook Paddy Codd had to do the final preps before he was put overboard may he rest in peace when the Maple did eventually arrive in Aussie she was loading steel in Port Kembla and Tony Byrne took Paddy’s place.

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		Irish Larch 1964 Cormac Lowth (Sept.2010)		3rd. sept '1959 Irish larch, liverpool
		"Chippy" Cormac Lowth shaping a piece of iron at his forge on the 'Irish Larch' in the Indian Ocean in 1964. A bit of a risky business in hindsight given the bare flesh and the hot coals. The impetuosity of youth.		1959/60 Photos from Aiden Forde	Irish Larch 1959 Back row: Paul McCarty(Cork). Charlie Austen, Tom 'blacker' Healy, Gerry Doyle 'Dub', 2nd row; Aiden Forde (Arklow), Noel Doyle 'Dub', Pascal Allen 'Dub', Willie O'Brien (Youghal), 1st row; Ollie Grace (Arklow), ?, ?, Petie Breen 'Dub'
1960 Photos and comments from Tony Clements	New Orleans , October 1960. (l to r): Tony “Clem” Clements apprentice, Bob Lawlor (electrician?).	At Sea, Gulf of Mexico , October 1960. John Ryan (apprentice) untangling his wireless aerial	Corpus Christi , November 1960. (l to r): Jimmy Tallon, “Scouser” (name unknown), “Lamps” (name unknown) and Tony “Clem" Clements.	Heavy weather in the North Atlantic , bound UK , November 1960. (l to r): “Scouser”, John Ryan, Bosun (name unknown) and Jimmy Tallon (outside the entrance to the apprentices’ accommodation).	Heavy weather in the North Atlantic , bound UK , November 1960. Checking the lashings on a deck cargo of empty bourbon barrels. They were for use by the Scottish whisky industry. (l to r): Chippy (name unknown), Jimmy ……..? and Peter ……..?

Please thank both Tony Clements for his article covering ISL ships and voyage log. It about sums it up perfectly for all us ISL Apprentices,, just a great job. Eddie Duffy, well as soon as I saw the photos I remembered him too as so many faces start to recall from those days.
Thank goodness someone was taking photos; the record is the story of all of us. Having been involved heavily in training international crews how true we all did things so well without very much paper and a lot of solid knowledge passed on by officers and crew.
Yes bilge cleaning. I was just the size for that and cleaned every bilge in the "Irish Elm" on her maiden voyage and my first trip with ISL.

Lovely after just coming from Grey's shipyard!! Oh well I guess it made me a better officer when it became my turn to give the orders!
My last ship before retiring I had 600 crew and 35 nationalities so very different days, orders in four languages. Good watch to all hands, thanks again to all sending photos to Aiden.
We figure the other Apprentice is Willy Glynn. The Apprentices that trip were Billy Beirne of Wicklow, my self Waterford/Dublin, Jimmy Rickard of Howth (lost at sea as Master, see Howth harbor memorial) and I believe Willy Glynn?? Colm Lawless was promoted to Master and Billy became the Third Mate. Capt. Glanville had been Master and when he left everybody moved up one rank leaving an open Third Mate berth. Best regards and good watch,
CAPT. D. Peter Boucher, MN (Ret.)
Maritime Affairs Consultant & Marine Sciences Instructor

Irish Larch 1956-1957 Photos from Eddie Duffy

1958/9 from Michael Mills

Irish Larch, Departing BC for Ireland 1981

This is the Irish Larch fully laden with Canadian lumber products and bound for Dublin.
I remember that just prior to sailing while we were testing the bridge equipment the Bridge Control system failed which meant we could not stop the propeller without emergency shut down. The end result was that we almost pulled the fragile wooden dock into the bay and we had to steer the vessel by hand all the way down the Pacific and across the Caribbean and Atlantic oceans. Jim Whelan was on the bridge with me when that happened.

Capt.Paul Reid.

Irish Larch 1981

Irish Larch in drydock at Ulsan South Korea 1982 Josephine and Brendan Kealy in the dock.

Erc Kealy

P.Parkes 1976

Aboard the IRISH LARCH in Port Said 1964, waiting to go through the Suez Canal, Left to right, Boatman, Johnney Linke A.B., boatman, Peter Rossiter, Luke Wadden, Noel Tobin, Paddy Chandler, Willie Brady, Tiny Lynch, E Byrne, Cormac Lowth, chippy, boatman. The boat and crew were hoisted aboard to run the mooring lines in case the ship had to tie up in a lay-bye when going through the Canal			1970	1964

The baldies on the IRISH LARCH 1964 are, left to right, Paddy "Eyepole" O'Brien, donkeyman. E.Byrne, deckboy, Luke Wadden, E.D.H. Barber John Tone, donkeyman, Tom Mc'Clean, O.S. Willy "Jazzer" Brady, O.S. Frank Stubbs, A.B. "Eyepole" was so called because he had an eye-shaped scar in the middle of his forehead.
		Hanging from the awnings on the same trip are E.Byrne, deckboy, Frank Stubbs, A.B. Jazzer Brady, O.S. Luke Wadden, E.D.H. Noel Tobin, Donkeyman, Peter Rossiter, Messman, Paddy Chandler, E.D.H.. Tom O'Brien, Apprentice is in the background.		The IRISH LARCH in the Med. 1964. Peter Tallon, A.B. Cormac Lowth, Chippy,E.Byrne, deckboy, Tiny Lynch, OS . The funnel is painted differently as we were on Charter, I think to Pakistani Shipping Lines

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