A cannonball, a “ghost ship” and the remains of a vessel carrying 43 tonnes (43,000kg) of gold were among the items washed up on Irish shores in recent years.
The finds were notified to the Office of the Revenue Commissioners under laws that require anyone in the State who finds shipwrecked items to report them to the authorities.
To this end, the Department of Transport appoints a network of Revenue officials around the country to act as “receivers of wreck”.
It is their job to take possession of wrecks, assess their value and, if possible, help find their owners. This is done by placing a notice in the nearest Garda station and Revenue office.
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If a wreck is found by a salvager, it is up to the receiver to sell it and pay them a portion of the funds.
Any wreck that goes unclaimed after a year must be referred to the director of the National Museum for assessment of its “historical, archaeological or artistic importance”. The State is entitled to take possession of a wreck not claimed within a year.
Receivers of wreck are also required to deal with abandoned vessels close to shore but below the waterline. In such circumstances, they must sail a boat above the wreck, drop a lead line over it and, at the same time, declare “that he takes possession of such vessel by virtue of the powers vested in him by statute”, according to an instruction manual provided to receivers.
Details for items taken into possession by receivers of wreck since 2015 were released to The Irish Times following a Freedom of Information request. Twenty reports were received by Revenue during this period, with eight of those occurring last year.
Many of the records provide glimpses of Ireland’s often tragic maritime history, including ships sunk by torpedoes, landmines and storms, with the loss of hundreds of lives.
In October, timbers believed to be from HMS Saldanha washed up on Ballymastocker Beach in Co Donegal. The Saldanha was a British frigate built in 1807 to patrol the Irish coast during the Napoleonic Wars. She was wrecked during a storm near Fanad Head in 1811, resulting in the loss of all 273 crew. The captain’s parrot survived and flew to shore, only to be shot by a farmer the following year.
In October 2016, items from British steamship the Boniface, including four portholes, washed ashore. The ship was sunk by a German U-boat in 1917 near Tory Island, off Donegal.
That same month in 2016, a porthole from SS Laurentic washed up. The transatlantic ocean liner was secretly carrying 3,211 gold bars to Canada and the United States to purchase munitions for the UK when she struck sea mines laid near Lough Swilly in January 1917.
She sank with the loss of 354 crew. All but 22 of the gold bars were recovered during various salvage operations over the years.
In August 2022, the bell from the HMS Hurst Castle was found on the coast and handed over to the National Museum. The Royal Navy corvette was torpedoed and sunk off Northern Ireland while searching for German U-boats in August 1944, a month after she was built. Seventeen sailors were killed.
Some of the finds remain mysterious, including an object appearing to be a cannonball recovered as part of a “solidified mass” off Rosslare, Co Wexford in 2015 and “a number of maritime items” found near Fanad, Co Donegal, in 2022.
Not all the finds are historic. The records include several abandoned yachts, fishing vessels and row boats.
In February 2020, a receiver of wreck took possession of the MV Alta after it ran aground near Ballycotton, Co Cork. In 2018, the Alta was travelling from Greece to Haiti when her engines failed, leading the crew to abandon ship.
For two years, the Alta drifted as a “ghost ship” before washing ashore in Cork. The receiver referred the vessel to the National Museum, which confirmed it had no historic importance.
The Alta remains stranded where it first shipwrecked five years ago. Officials say there are no plans to remove its battered remains, despite environmental and safety concerns.
To date, no one has attempted to claim the vessel. It is not clear if the owners saw the notice in the local Garda station and Revenue office.
