KISH Sub Aqua Club

“All is quiet on New Year’s day” maybe in Bono’s house but in Kishsac it was down to the 40ft for a New Years day dip.  We had a great showing of members young and old  , present and future club members.  We even have the pictures to prove that the pain was taken.  Well done to all!

So it is now time to shake off the  cob webs and get back in the pool on a Wednesday night 8pm-9pm, we shall also commence snorkelling each Sunday (weather permitting) notification from D.O. each week.

2011 marked the 25th anniversary of the formation of Kish Sub Aqua Club, having been formed in 1986.  During this time the Club has had the  pleasure of being the “home” for snorkellers, divers and many others with an interest in the sea.

It has been the catalyst for firm friendships that have stood test of time even though many miles are often placed between members past and present.

On Sat. 21st of January, the Club is hosting its annual Christmas and New Year Party at 8pm at the Clarendon Bar 30 Calerndon Street, Dublin 2.

You are cordially invited to come and join us for a chat and light refreshments to celebrate our 25th year as we look forward to many more to come.  In add a founding member, Mick Carr, will be awarded Honorary Life Membership of the Club.  So come and meet up with friends “old” and “new”.

I wish you a very Happy New Year.

Yours sincerely
Peter Brady

An article by Peter Brady who was recently doing some research on the web and literally ‘tripped’ over the following tale of a 90 year old love story about Stan and Flo in Scapa Flow…..

‘Irish Cave diving: passion, obsession, the last frontiers…’
A tribute to Artur Kozlowski
By Jim Warny
Thurs Nov 3rd, 7:30pm, MacNeill Theatre, Hamilton Building, TCD.
Open to all.

I previously mentioned two hapless pirates and their connection with the Muglins rock off Dalkey, and promised to tell their story.

In November 1765, the Earl of Sandwich set sail from the Canary Islands bound for London with a cargo of silk, gold dust, jewels and 250 bags of Spanish dollars under the joint partnership of Captains Cochrane and Glass (Glas?).  The ship itself was apparently named after John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich (3rd Nov 1718 – 30th April 1792), who held the post of the First Lord of the Admiralty from February 1748 to June 1751.  He is credited with the ‘invention’ of the sandwich, as his time at his desk (or the card table) was often sustained by slices of meat between two slices of bread.  Whether entirely accurate or not, it is accepted that it was not the world’s first use of the ‘sandwich’, his surname thereafter became synonymous with the snack.

The ship’s rich cargo held too much of a temptation for four of the crew, who took over the ship mid-journey, killing Cochrane and Glas, followed by the latter’s wife and daughter who are suspected to have been still alive when thrown overboard.  George Gidley, Richard St. Quintin, Andreas Zeckerman (Zekerman?) and Peter McKinley (McKinlea?), the only Irishman, then set sail for the Irish coast.  Near New Ross, they killed the few remaining crew and scuttled the ship after loading a longboat.  Landing near Duncannon Fort on the 3rd December 1765, they buried most of their ill-gotten gains at a small bay that has since then been called Dollar Bay.

In Fishertown, close to New Ross, while in a drunken stupor, they managed to get robbed of $1,200, and after replenishing their pockets they went on to New Ross where they purchased horses and pistols, and came to the attention of the local authorities who suspected piracy.  After the wreck was blown ashore sometime afterwards, local suspicions were well founded.  The four had already moved on to Dublin and were staying in the Black Bull Tavern on Thomas Street.  The four were arrested and stood trial on the 1st March 1766 having confessed to robbery and murder.  After ending their lives on the gallows at St. Stephen’s Green, their corpses were hung in chains on the South Wall, Ringsend.  It was tradition for marine criminals to be hung at an entrance to a harbour, just like highwaymen were left hanging at cross-roads.

Apparently, the South Wall was as popular for walkers then as it is now and within a few weeks, the citizens of Dublin found their presence there objectionable as they went for their daily stroll, perhaps also annoyed by the interaction of gulls with the corpses.  Complaints of the foul sight and smell forced their relocation and it appears that just two were relocated for public display, as the newspapers announced on the 1st April 1766 that the bodies of Gidley and McKinley were to be placed on the Muglins.  Another source states that it was the bodies of Zeckerman and McKinley that were moved to the rock.  Regardless, two corpses were hung in a new set of chains ‘said to be the completest ever made’ on a gallows erected as a warning to all those who may also be so tempted as this pair.  It appears that they hung there until time and the sea washed away all trace of their existence on the Muglins.

Peter Brady
18th July 2011

Sources:  
Hopkins, Frank (2007), Hidden Dublin, Mercier Press, Cork.
Seascapes (RTE Radio 1) – Friday 11th March 2011. http://www.rte.ie/radio1/seascapes/#Podcasts
Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown Library Service – A History of Dun Laoghaire.
www.howstuffworks.com

View from Sandycove

I know that we say that we normally dive on a Thursday evening and Sunday morning, but hey, the weather has been so predictably bad since the end of April that we have, on the odd occasion, just followed the weather. We have a new Guru – windguru – and the site informed all in sundry that the wind would drop off on Sunday at 7.05pm (yes, it was that specific).

Ten gathered at Dun Laoghaire Coal Harbour at 6.30pm and we were a mixed bunch. From our gender balance and age range, we could have been mistaken for a family get-together on any given warm Sunday evening. With only a few sailors coming and going in the harbour, we departed shore on our adventures.

Our first dive site was at the SW corner of Dalkey Island, where half of our group dived. Each diver was achieving something; two chalked-up another dive towards doing their Club Diver (Diver**) certification; one in full flow preparing for his Leading Diver (Diver***); one getting in his first dive of the season (now that exams are all over); while another was just happy to do another dive to distract from the hectic lifestyle brought on by a young family and a new job. The stories back were the expected reports of diverse flora and fauna. Although the visibility was only about 2 metres, there were smiles all round.

View of Dalkey Island from Coliemore harbour

As with the wind (which had backed off considerably about 25 minutes earlier than expected – but we can live with that), the High Water (Neap Tide) also fell perfectly slack to schedule a specific dive for the second shift of divers. We headed straight for the site of the wreck of the Guide Me II about 1.5km SE off Dalkey Island and the Muglins. The story of this small ship is for another time, but in the almost calm conditions, we were soon in the water on the way down the shot-line to the wreck sitting upright in 38 metres. The line is secured around the empty gun-mount near the bow. The visibility was about 5 metres and once eyes have adjusted to the darker conditions, torches are required only to enjoy the detail of the orange and white anemone literally covering the hull or the several crustaceans (especially lobsters) that have made chez GMII their permanent residence. The fish life was predominantly young Codling shoaling near the remnants of the wheelhouse and a few Butterfish on the deck. After appropriate decompression stops are made, there were more smiling faces post dive as we headed for Dun Laoghaire to fill cylinders and leave the place as we found it.

While passing the Muglins, someone recalled the story of the two mutineers whose bodies were left hanging on makeshift gallows at that location around the end of the 1700’s. But that story is also for another time…..

Peter Brady
29th July 2011