Techniques – Page 168 – intheboatshed.net

Photos from the Inishkea Islands

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Deserted village on the Inishkea south island. As usual, click on
the thumbnails for much larger images

Barnacle geese in flight

A couple of days ago, I found this very welcome message from intheboatshed.net reader Duncan Sclare in my inbox. It has got me thinking that it’s more than high time I made a return trip to the West of Ireland to see some more of its wondrful remote Atlantic islands.

‘Hi Gavin,

‘Having read and enjoyed reading intheboatshed for some time now I thought I ought to add a little bit for others to hopefully enjoy.

‘One of my family’s favourite boating destinations is the Inishkea Islands, three miles off the west coast of Co Mayo, where we live.

‘The islands have an interesting history. They were inhabited up to the mid 1930s, but the community never really recovered from the great storm of 1927 when about 45 men mostly fishing from curraghs were drowned off the Mayo and Galway coast, ten of them from the Inishkea Islands.

‘The islanders moved to the nearby mainland and continued to graze animals and fish around the islands, as their descendants still do today.

‘Further back in time around 1900 there was a Norwegian whaling station on the south island. There are many myths and storys including tales of piracy and civil war, and stone-throwing incidents between north and south islands and, of course, various legends about poitín brewing.

‘The two villages on the one on each island are now slowly being reclaimed by nature, as can be seen in the photos.

‘I had the pleasure of meeting one of the last surviving people born on the island this summer. Her daughter and son in law had spent a couple of years doing up her old home, and brought her out on a beautiful August day to see it close up for the first time in almost 70 years.

‘There is a wide variety of wildlife including many grey seals that come ashore in the late autumn to have their pups. Barnacle geese, which give the islands their name, still come down from their breeding sites high up in Greenland to over-winter on the islands.

‘Mayo County Council are now putting together a long over due Conservation and Management Plan that will hopefully secure the islands future for all to enjoy and appreciate without damaging the rather delicate eco-system.

‘An excellent information site can be found here: Insihkea Islands.

‘Doing a bit of boat building myself will mail you if I have anything of substance to report. Keep up the good work

‘Regards, Duncan Sclare’

Many thanks for this Duncan – I’m most grateful you have taken the time to write in with your photos. I’m sure the image of the derelict cottages in particular will be very powerful for many people. Do let us know how your project goes!

For more intheboatshed.net posts about currachs including information about building the boats, click here.

Seal pup photographed on Inishkea

Cockleshell Hero canoes at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall

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A new National Maritime Museum Cornwall display explores the evolution of fighting canoes used by the British in World War II.

The oldest canoe in the collection, the Mark II, was made famous by Operation Frankton in December 1942, which was the basis for the film The Cockleshell Heroes.

The real Cockleshell Heroes were Royal Marine Commandos, who got their nickname from the canoes that they used, which were known as cockles. They were difficult to spot at night and easy to hide, launch attacks and seek out suitable landing places, and could even be used to and could be used to land and collect secret agents. Collapsible types could be carried and launched from submarines.

A brief description of the raid and a collection of relevant links appears at the Wikipedia.

I should explain that much of the information now available and some of the artifacts on show is available thanks to the painstaking research work of Quentin Rees, who has recently published a book on the topic: The Cockleshell Canoes: British Military Canoes of World War Two.

The exhibition, which runs until the 26th April 2009, includes two other canoes in the exhibition are built of aluminium for use in the tropics, and the display is said to bring together three of the rarest military canoes of the time.

NMMC photographic exhibition of working Newlyn fishermen

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Sample images from Newlyn: Fishing for a Living – click on the
thumbnails for much larger images

A dramatic National Maritime Museum Cornwall exhibition by photo journalist Vince Bevan explores the working lives of fishermen at the port of Newlyn, Cornwall, from January 7th.

The images taken from a photo essay titled Newlyn: Fishing for a Living provide an insight into the highs and lows of contemporary fishing life, and echo the work of the Newlyn School artists, who depicted the harsh realities of life in this Cornish port at the end of the 19th century.

‘With rising fuel cost and the restrictive quotas placed on fishermen it seems as though every other day we read about the pressures faced by fishing communities,’ says Bevan. ‘These photographs portray a way of life that is increasingly under threat.’

Newlyn is the largest fishing port in England and has a strong and proud community, supplying livelihoods to many who are fiercely loyal to their profession; however, commercial fishing is still one of the country’s most dangerous industries, and even with modern boats and equipment serious injury and loss of life are common, and vessels are regularly lost.

The exhibition is supported by the Arts Council England.

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