New Ross
Michael Mahon
September 22, 2023
HM 250 New Ross - Ireland's only inland port.
Looking at the map, you may wonder why there is a port 32 km from the sea up the Barrow river. That is until you learn that the river is partly "canalised" and up to 1950 barges took malting barley up to Dublin to the Guinness brewery and more importantly brought the finished product south again. Today ships of up to 5,000t (your average coaster is 2,000t) are serviced by New Ross, with 50 a year importing the ubiquitous animal feed, fertiliser and cement. The notable export is of "pebbles" shipped to England.
Thanks to Captain Michael Mahon, HM of New Ross, I experienced one of my nautical ambitions which was to transfer from a Pilot boat, with the pilot, onto an incoming ship. This he kindly set up for me the day after I met him at New Ross. The photos show me with Pilot Sean Whelan, pilot boat Coxswain Thomas Sullivan and tug Captain Jimmy Atkins. Jimmy was towing a redundant fishing boat up river to be scrapped at New Ross. At one point he had to shorten the tow lines in order to squeeze tug and boat through the Barrow railway swing bridge which involved some masterful helming. The owner of the fishing boat was also on board and was understandably sad.
Michael is a typical Irish HM, having been born into a seafaring family. At 14 as a schoolboy in Dublin, a poster of a ship's pilot helped him decide his career and by 17 he was at sea with Arklow shipping. He was a cadet with Stena and went to Saudi Arabia as a 3rd officer working for Cable & Wireless maintaining undersea cables. He described to me picking up cables off the seabed with grappling hooks and winching them up onto the ship - amazing. His most enjoyable job was as Captain of an Anchor Handler. In fact he knew the man who made the leggo model that we had been shown by the HM of Montrose back in 2021. (See my post on Montrose) He described to me the thrill of using a 20,000 HP ship to lay an anchor at 2,000m in Indonesia - to be fair what man, or woman, would not enjoy such an exciting job.
Since taking over as HM in 2020, Michael has re-lit all the buoyage in river, at a cost of £250k and dealt with the severe effects of the Russian Ukrainian war which has doubled the freight rates from E20 to E40 per tonne. His most unexpected moment came when he was called by some residents in the small river marina and told that a Tsunami had just crashed through the marina - literally. Disbelieving at first, it came to be known that an earthquake in Portugal really had created a very local surge in the river pushing boats in the marina 6ft up in the air. All in a day's work for a Harbour Master.
Thank you Michael for a very interesting visit.
Looking at the map, you may wonder why there is a port 32 km from the sea up the Barrow river. That is until you learn that the river is partly "canalised" and up to 1950 barges took malting barley up to Dublin to the Guinness brewery and more importantly brought the finished product south again. Today ships of up to 5,000t (your average coaster is 2,000t) are serviced by New Ross, with 50 a year importing the ubiquitous animal feed, fertiliser and cement. The notable export is of "pebbles" shipped to England.
Thanks to Captain Michael Mahon, HM of New Ross, I experienced one of my nautical ambitions which was to transfer from a Pilot boat, with the pilot, onto an incoming ship. This he kindly set up for me the day after I met him at New Ross. The photos show me with Pilot Sean Whelan, pilot boat Coxswain Thomas Sullivan and tug Captain Jimmy Atkins. Jimmy was towing a redundant fishing boat up river to be scrapped at New Ross. At one point he had to shorten the tow lines in order to squeeze tug and boat through the Barrow railway swing bridge which involved some masterful helming. The owner of the fishing boat was also on board and was understandably sad.
Michael is a typical Irish HM, having been born into a seafaring family. At 14 as a schoolboy in Dublin, a poster of a ship's pilot helped him decide his career and by 17 he was at sea with Arklow shipping. He was a cadet with Stena and went to Saudi Arabia as a 3rd officer working for Cable & Wireless maintaining undersea cables. He described to me picking up cables off the seabed with grappling hooks and winching them up onto the ship - amazing. His most enjoyable job was as Captain of an Anchor Handler. In fact he knew the man who made the leggo model that we had been shown by the HM of Montrose back in 2021. (See my post on Montrose) He described to me the thrill of using a 20,000 HP ship to lay an anchor at 2,000m in Indonesia - to be fair what man, or woman, would not enjoy such an exciting job.
Since taking over as HM in 2020, Michael has re-lit all the buoyage in river, at a cost of £250k and dealt with the severe effects of the Russian Ukrainian war which has doubled the freight rates from E20 to E40 per tonne. His most unexpected moment came when he was called by some residents in the small river marina and told that a Tsunami had just crashed through the marina - literally. Disbelieving at first, it came to be known that an earthquake in Portugal really had created a very local surge in the river pushing boats in the marina 6ft up in the air. All in a day's work for a Harbour Master.
Thank you Michael for a very interesting visit.