Not end of the road for the ‘Lady Boyne’
CAPT GEORGE LEDINGHAM HELPED BRING CONCRETE SHIP FROM NEWCASTLE
August 1970
THE OLD LADY said “No” — and yet another chapter may be added to her proud 53-year-old history. For this particular lady, much maligned in recent weeks, is an estimated 80-ton hulk of solid re-inforced concrete, the “Lady Boyne.”
And despite threats to “run her out’, present owners, Silica Sands Ltd., intend to guard her jealously. Within three years, they plan a floating jetty.
The company, which has its plant along the Boyne at Drogheda wants to export sand to England. The “Lady Boyne” has been lying useless and unwanted for more than 17 years.
She was built in Newcastle in 1917 along with three sister tugs. A wartime shortage of steel saw them built from concrete.
The “Lady “made her maiden voyage on a trip from Newcastle to Singapore with a fleet of tugs, towing a floating dry dock. She was phased out of action over a 15-year period, until purchased by the Irish Oil and Cake Mills in 1935.
She left Liverpool for her final resting place in Drogheda on a Saturday morning in August 1936- and almost didn’t make it.
Said Mr. George A. Ledingham, of Laytown, who travelled on her that week-end: “We ran into a south-westerly gale on the way across. It was touch-and-go. We were expected in Drogheda on Sunday but did not make it until Monday afternoon.”
Then the “Lady’s” decline into her present state began. Her engines were ripped out and she was used as a barge. Coasters from the Continent unloaded their cargo on to her as 15 long, hard years passed.
Her final inglorious fate as a gutted floating relic came in the early ‘fifties. Extra wharfs were built by the IOCM and the “Lady “was redundant.
One of her few admirers, Mr. Ledingham still maintains that she is a fine vessel. “She still does not take water. If she had been made of steel she would be like a sive after more than half a century on the water,” he said.
This idealistic appreciation of her qualities is not shared by other local people.
And her future, even as a floating jetty, could still be in jeopardy. At last week’s meeting of the Drogheda Harbour Board she was called “an eyesore “and members said she “should be driven out of town.”
Commenting on the news that Silica Sands intend to make use of her, Lieut. Commander George Worn, Secretary of the Board, said that the matter would have to be discussed at a Harbour Board meeting. ‘I can’t comment at the moment as I would not like to anticipate what the Board will decide. There are also a number of technical problems,” added the Board Secretary. At Tuesday’s meeting of Drogheda Harbour Board, the chairman. Ald. Peter. Moore, again asked about the chances of an early removal from the river of the Lady Boyne. “She’s ugly looking,’ he stated.