The three-masted topsail schooner Brooklands, ex-Susan Yittery, was Ireland's last pure sailing merchantman. This photo of her was taken about 1933 in Galway Bay. The author sailed on her for a month during her last year as a trader. Photo courtesy the author.
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-. At left , the handsome steel motor schooner De Wadden outlasted the Brook lands , trading out ofArk/ow under the ownership ofVictor Hall until 1961 , when she was sold to new owners in Scotland. This photo was taken by the author in Dublin in 1948. Lower left, the three-masted wooden schooner Kathleen & May was charging along off the south coast of Wales in the Bristol Channel, when the author scrambled out on the bowsprit to take this photo in 1958. The vessel was owned in Youghal, County Cork.from 1908 till 1931. She is now under the care of Britain' s Maritime Trust and can be visited at her berth in London.
Creenan ownership the schooner missed her old master and his son, and perhaps her natural affinity for wind and sails. Within six months of John Creenan 's death in 1952, his beloved Brooklands was also gone. What was left of the Arklow fleet of auxiliary schooners steadily went out of trade, some wrecked, others broken up. The very last to carry cargo was the 330-ton steel three-masted De Wadden, which traded until 1961 before her sale to Scotland. By good fortune, she is now in the skillful care of the Merseyside Maritime Museum at Liverpool , where she is being restored to her original three-masted fore and aft rig. Another connection with Irish merchant sail can still be seen on the Thames at London. There the Maritime Trust has preserved the last British wooden three-masted schooner Kathleen & May , which was owned in Youghal, County Cork, from 1908to1931 and was the second last sailing trader from that port. D Mr. Scott has had a lively interest in ships and ship photography since childhood. He made several trips on the last of the sailing traders from 1945through1960, including the Kathleen & May and the Brooklands in her last year of trading. Today he enjoys sailing on Ireland's West Coast and is the author of The Galway Hookers.
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