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Irene Fire Irene was launched on the 29th
May 1907. She was the
final creation of Carvers of Bridgwater, and was bought by Symons,
local brick and tile manufacturers.
29th May 2003 was her 96th
birthday. She lay,
fire-ravaged, at the bottom of Marigot Bay, St. Maarten, West Indies.
In the 96 years of her life, Irene has become known and indeed
loved by many thousands of people.
For the last 5 years she has again attempted to be commercial
by being a Charter Yacht for Caribbean clients.
On the night of the 22nd, a fire started aft,
presumed engine room but might have been Master Cabin or the
“smokers gallery” at the stern – we will probably never know.
A French fire vessel attended her, but the general view was
that their job was poorly done. When
they backed off, the fire rapidly consumed the whole vessel, masts,
rigging, deck, deck beams, frames, inner planking – the fire raged
for 8 hours before Irene sank. She is, in insurance terms, a total
constructional loss, and the insurance company had negotiated with a
local surveyor and local salvage company to tow the wreck to the shore
and attack her with a JCB. Bits
would then be carried away in dumper trucks to be discarded
unceremoniously in some landfill site. While accepting that that was clearly
economically the correct course, there did seem other considerations
that required scrutiny. Irene
played an important part in British maritime history.
For 40 years she was the last West Country coasting ketch still
sailing, but now it may look as if Bessie Ellen has taken over this
mantle. Irene was part of
our family, and I personally have been chained to her, body soul and
wallet, since 1965. We flew out to St. Martins, obtained as
much story as we could from the crew, neighbouring vessels, talked
with the salvor team to explore alternatives, bought some diving gear
and explored the wreck. The
old girl had been eviscerated. Quite
a lot of the planking looked intact from the outside, but in some
cases it had burned right through to the paint.
Most of the inner ceiling had gone, and the ribs.
The lower deck was almost entirely unscathed.
Whether this was because the fire simply raged higher, or
whether it was under water for most of the conflagration, the lower
deck and everything below it was perfectly sound.
Irene had been coppered the summer before.
The copper reached some 6 inches above the waterline.
The charred timber was all there, and strong enough to provide
backing for the copper, which proved in fact to be watertight. We made a decision to re-float her to
take the opportunity to examine her in more detail and determine
whether it was feasible or plain lunatic to attempt to rebuild.
We brought up an intact bottle of champagne, ignored the slight
taste of diesel, and drank to Irene’s future.
The salvors were very efficient.
Between us we removed the two Gardner engines, tons of ballast
and a host of debris ranging from intact T-shirts to rope under the
fo’csle sole and bottles of booze protected in lockers at
sole level. Heavy objects
like anchor, anchor chain and windlass were all removed from her
belly, the prize possession of the ship’s bell discovered under the
ash. What was left of the
spars were towed away, and with the hull almost empty of heavy gear,
the salvors put airbags under the hull and brought out the
crane-barge. Two straps
on spreaders, and a very slow and steady lift brought Irene to the
surface, but before we could get the first pump into action one sling
broke, and Irene once more slid to the bottom of the bay.
We had learned however, that the system worked, and two new
slings the following morning raised her once more to the same point,
three heavy pumps removed several thousand gallons of seawater, and
she floated some three feet higher than her previous waterline – an
indication that she had lost 130 of her 190 tons. There was a little ingress from
unsealed skin fittings, but a small pump kept that at bay while she
was carefully towed into the lagoon to safe calm waters, and a secure
mooring alongside a tug. The decision to rebuild was already
made. The question was
– where. We explored
the yards in St. Martins, also the dry dock in St. Vincents, a slipway
in Venezuela was a real option. She
could be put on a barge and towed up to Chesapeake Bay, but in the end
we decided to bring her home to Cornwall.
To our surprise, this proved to be the most difficult part of
the exercise. It seemed
the freighters didn’t want a burnt-out hulk on their foredeck, and
yacht transporters obviously felt our lump of charcoal demeaned their
pristine super-yachts. We
even looked seriously at the concept of tacking her together with
plywood and putting a similar bit of deck over her, covering with
tarpaulin, and towing her across the Atlantic.
Feasible, but risky – watch this space. Leslie Morrish Owner of Irene Check the Rebuild page for Updates
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