The 'Alfred Mason'

 

My mural of the 'Alfred Mason' coaster was painted on the East Pier around 2014. 

Built in 1919 under the name, the 'Warita', she was one of a fleet of small coasters commissioned by John Summers and built in the small Queensferry Shipyard in Deeside, Wales. He was influenced to build such a fleet due to a slump in coastal trade at the time.

Carrying only between 200 to 300 tons, similar to motor barges used on canals, the ships were an ideal size and design to cope with the low shallows of the estuary of the River Dee.

In 1974, the vessel was bought over by John Tyrell, one of the few Irish shipowners of that era and a native of County Wicklow. Renamed the 'Alfred Mason', she was purchased from the Port Dinorick Shipping Company in Bangor, North Wales.

Tyrell relocated the coaster to Skerries in north County Dublin as a trader importing Welsh coal to Dublin, Wicklow and Arklow, and exporting timber props fron County Wicklow for use in the Welsh coalmines.

I recall first seeing the vessel in 1966 when I was 10 years old, when she was tied up on the South Quay off-loading coal to a nearby coal yard. Local people often said that whenever the 'Alfred Mason' docked in the port, it would always be raining - as I could testify to from my own experience!

Quite a few Wicklow men started their seafaring careers on the vessel. I remember 3 of them: Eddie Doyle (RIP) who later worked with ship pilots, "Shanba" Quinn (still alive), and John Goodman (RIP) who persued a career in the British Navy as a merchant navy seaman with the Blue Funnel Company, a renowned Britsh shipping company. Some of the men who trained on the ship requested me  to paint the mural of her.

In 1961, the ship played a starring role in a film called 'Gorgo', as she was sent off in search of a monster that had reportedly appeared off the west coast of Ireland due to seismic activity! Scenes from the film were shot in Dalkey Sound - the strip of water between Dalkey Island and the mainland.

Sadly, the 'Alfred Mason' was scrapped in Dublin in 1968, almost 50 years on from her original creation.

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