A friend (ida57[AG]hotmail.co.uk) has sent you an article:

Sunken ship 'under threat' from Ballina marina development
[www.nenaghguardian.ie]


Hi List

Has anyone any idea where exactly the steamer is? Has it ever been seen?

Tom

Tom wrote...
>
> Has anyone any idea where exactly the steamer is? Has it ever been seen?
>

Yes and Yes.

If you go to the old Derg Marina in Killaloe, where the new development is
planned and walk out past the first "basin" on your left with the second one
on your right, there's a jetty along the waterfront with finger jetties
sticking out from it.

At one point, there's a dog-leg out in the jetty so its maybe 3m from the
shore and about 30m further on, it dog-legs back in again. This was done to
avoid (in theory) damaging the wreck when the marina was built. The vessel
is lying partly buried by the bank and in the mud inside the dog-leg bit.
You can just about make out some of the outline at the stem and stern if the
water is clear. (Or at least I thought I could when I was there a few
weeks ago.)

Somewhere I have photos of the wreck taken by (I think) the Underwater
Archaeology Section of DoE within the last few weeks.

Ruth Delany and her late husband sounded the wreck many years ago and from
the dimensions were pretty sure it was indeed the Lady Lansdowne. It was
properly surveyed by a team from the Liverpool Maritime Museum in the 60s
and they were keen I believe to try and lift the wreck and bring it back to
Liverpool because of course Lairds (not Cammel Laird at that point) were
just across the Mersey in Birkinhead. Those plans were scuppered, or so the
story goes, by the outbreak of the NI troubles in the late 60s.

I heard over the weekend that the wreck was in fact damaged when the present
marina was build because one of the buldozers drove over it and flattened
part of it. Whether this is true or not I don't know but it seems
plausible.

Ruth is pretty sure that the deck, machinery, paddles and paddle boxes were
all gone and all that remains is the hull itself. But being made of wrought
iron of some sort it probably hasn't deteriorated that much.

Contrary to the Nenagh Guardian article, I don't think it's correct to say
she's the "worlds oldest paddle steamer". I think that distinction probably
belongs to the Charlotte Dundas c1803. I'm not even clear she's the oldest
iron paddle steamer though undoubtedly she is very early. She is certainly
the first iron steamer to be built by Lairds and that apparantly is fairly
well documented.

It would indeed be a tragedy if the wreck was damaged during the development
work but it would cost mega-bucks to lift and especially conserve it.

Colin

Somewhere I have a record of an investigation by the Liverpool group - I
can't recall whether I got it from Ruth Delaney or Kevin Farrell, when we
were doing some research into the steamers in the Killaloe area.

There is a lovely illustration of the Lady Lansdowne in Stoke's Pictorial
Survey of Lough Derg - which I believe is reproduced in one of Ruth
Delaney's books - as are the drawings / measurements herself and her late
husband made of the wreck.

My understanding / recollections of research done in 1990-92 are:
- some metal plates were removed from the hull of the Lansdowne during the
war years - those that were above the water level.
- the ship wasn't raised by the Liverpool team due to cost.
- When the Marina was being developed, the hull was filled in with loose
material - in an effort to preserve it (which would be reasonably promising,
if the high quality metal isn't too deteriorated.

I'm happy to try to dig out my records - though I haven't a clue where they
are at this stage !!


Kevin Griffin

Kevin,
That illustration etc. is in "By Shannon Shores" Ruth Delany, Gill and
Macmillan 1987. Page 209-210.
It says she was 300 tons, 135 feet long and 17 feet wide, propelled by a
90hp engine.
Paddy