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Irene Rebuild Page One Divers both crew and local professionals cooperated in emptying the hull of all heavy objects, engines, ballast, anchor chains and the like. Salvors were then able to raise her to the surface level with the help of air bags and a crane barge.
She was towed into the
lagoon at St Maartens and there to await freight back to the UK. 1-August-2003 Anchored
within ¼ mile of Irene on the night of the fire was the Avontuur a
steel schooner much the size of Irene, similarly gaff rigged and
earning her living as commercial cargo vessel with Paul Wahlen as
Master. Paul was the classic old man of the sea, every finger a
marline spike “I’ll tow her over”.
A practical solution or a further extension of Irene’s
ability to provoke madness? We
looked at the option carefully, considered Paul’s plans, his routing
charts, his dates, made one last effort to find a freighter then gave
Paul the go ahead. Meanwhile a creek by the River Lynher off the Tamar is being prepared with a berth for the rebuild. Mud out, stone and concrete in and a grid to keep her out of the water at all but the highest of tides. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avontuur was caught out by the tail end of a tropical wave shortly after leaving St Maartens. Two booms were broken in a jibe from a squall. She turned northwest to Bermuda for repairs. The repairs were easily and quickly done but in the meantime Customs decided that Avontuur was clearly carrying drugs or worse and raided the ship in a manner described as ‘rude’ and ‘offensive’ coupled with threats of violence. Not a good advertisement for Bermuda. Irene and Avontuur however left on the 6th August. Both the UK and the ship tried separately to contact via SSB without any success. The first contact was made by VHF to the Scilly Isles on the 8th September. The message was “due in Plymouth 1000 Tuesday 9th September”. The weather had different ideas, and just off Lands End a northerly gale threatened the whole venture. Captain Wahlen prudently turned south-east to run before. Meanwhile the welcoming party had set out in the ex-MFV Galilean to meet her coming apparently from the west. It was a lovely sail but no evidence of Avontuur or Irene. A message however was relayed by Falmouth Coastguard to say that the new ETA was 1500 hours. As there was still no evidence of the presence of the tow it was clear we were searching in the wrong area. Falmouth wasn’t able to provide lat and long. Galilean returned to Rame Head and sure enough over the horizon from the south, just past the Edistone Light, Avontuur and Irene came into view.
The ships were anchored in Cawsands Bay and Irene tied alongside Avontuur. It was too late for the tide that day to take Irene up to Bagmill, but arrangements were all in place for the following afternoon. All that is except for the weather, which was again blowing a howlie. The decision was to leave Avontuur in Cawsands Bay and the Galilean was to take Irene up river. This was accomplished without a hitch other than a minor brush with a buoy that could have been a major disaster without the quick thinking release of a rope from the little ex-MFV Progress, which was attached to Irene’s stern as “a rudder”. Up at Bagmill the tow was accelerated and once Irene was storming forward in the right direction the tow was dropped and she slid into her receptive mud bank where she will stay until the grid is adjusted to the right height for the end of September tides to raise her to maximum. Irene needed no pumping between St Maartens
and Plymouth. A mere dribble of Atlantic was discharged at Cawsands. The grid was completed with a 15” drop from stem to stern to reflect Irene’s waterline. Ballast on Irene was shifted aft to reflect the same measurements. She now drew 5’ 8” forward and 7’ 1” aft. She would in theory just float on on a 5.6 metre tide. Friday 27th September was the date chosen for the first effort. Irene was freed from her mud berth at mid-tide and with a combination of the ‘tug’ Galilean and men hanging on warps, Irene was pointed into the creek and temporarily moored alongside the wharf. At that point we could do nothing but wait as the water crept up painfully slowly. The most optimistic measurements indicated that with the high pressure the tide would not reach the required height. Despite the ill omens, we decided to manoeuvre Irene towards the grid and such faith was rewarded by a surge of tide that lifted her to the right height. With more warp hanging she was manoeuvred into her precise spot. We had fabricated four wedge shaped frames, one on each side of the two central RSJ’s and as the water began to disappear ropes pulled the frames under the wales at the turn of the bilge. Plumb lines fore and aft indicated that she was quite vertical, and so she has stayed. The frames are now bolted onto the girders and extra props are being put in place to ensure there is no sagging. Irene’s perilous voyage from the safety of St Maarten’s lagoon to the safety of Bagmill creek is a rewarding success.   
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