Catch of the day is a2021 giant elephant tusk
Treasure brought up in f ishermen’s nets off Kerry could be part of slave ship’s cargo
A GIANT elephant tusk has been pulled up in a Kerry fisherman’s nets from its resting place on the ocean floor in the murky depths of the Porcupine Bank, off the southwest coast.
Mystery surrounds the origin of the ivory, but experts believe it could have been on board a shipwrecked slave ship.
Elephant tusks were often shipped as cargo with African slaves in previous centuries.
It is thought the ivory could have lain undisturbed on the seabed for hundreds of years.
DNA samples from the large tusk could hold further clues to its origins and whether the species still exists today.
The giant tusk was reported to marine biologist Kevin Flannery in Dingle Oceanworld, but coronavirus restrictions meant it took months to identify the ivory.
‘A vessel called the Cú na Mara was trawling for prawns a couple of months ago in the Porcupine Bank and this came up. It was about 120 miles off the coast,’ said Mr Flannery. ‘Initially, it was thought it could have been a mammoth tusk but the National Parks and Wildlife underwater archaeology unit confirmed it was an ivory tusk from an elephant.’
The marine biologist said it is strongly suspected it was part of a consignment of ivory shipped from Africa.
‘There is a strong possibility it could have been on a slave ship. Ivory would have been one of the contents on a slave ship as well as slaves. It’s appalling to think of that in this day and age,’ he said.
‘It’s possible the ivory would have been trawled up from a grave of lost souls.’
Another leading marine biologist, Dr Declan Quigley, has also had reports of spices washing up of the Connemara coast over the past year from the same spot in the Porcupine Bank, an undersea canyon about 320km off the coast of Kerry that lies about 700 metres under the Atlantic Ocean.
‘He [Dr Quigley] informed me that a number of vessels from Rossaveel in Galway brought ashore spices, nutmeg and coconut, from the same place,’ adds Flannery.
‘So you’ve had quite a lot of tropical stuff, and the obvious thing is it was either coming or going as a slave ship. All the vessels were trawling on the Porcupine, and we think they were alongside the wreck of this vessel which was maybe uncovered in a storm.
‘The Dingle trawler picked up the ivory and the ones in Rossaveel picked up the nutmeg and coconut. ‘A DNA sample from the ivory could identify which elephant species it is and which part of the continent the elephant came from.’
He said further detective work on the ivory and missing ship lists could possibly help to identify the wreck and who was on board.
The marine biologist said the find underscores the need for more protection of shipwrecks outside Ireland’s 12-mile limit.
‘Shipwrecked vessels outside the 12-mile limit are being treasurehunted and there is an urgent need for protection for shipwrecks within the EZ, the economic zone, which is within the 200-mile limit.
‘It can be called treasure hunting, but in actual fact fishermen call it grave-robbing and I call it graverobbing,’ he said.
Dr Connie Kelleher, from the National Monuments Service at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, said the find reported by Kevin Flannery has now been reported to the National Museum of Irelandt.
‘I inspected the tusk in Dingle and it is a sizeable example. It is not possible to put a date on the tusk without carrying out dating analysis or indeed species analysis, which may provide information on the species of elephant and where they were located when hunted,’ she said.
Dr Kelleher, from the underwater archaeology unit, hopes DNA tests and dating analysis will be carried out in the future. ‘There is a chance that the tusk came from a wreck,
possibly associated with the trade in “elephant teeth”, as they are described in the historical sources,’ she explained.
‘During the 16th to 19th Centuries there was a vibrant trade in elephants that were hunted for their ivory, which was, in turn, highly prized when carved, and displayed in many fine stately homes during that period.
‘There is also the potential that it could be indicative of the slave trade, as many slavers, [which were] ships specifically involved in the trade in human cargo, often carried cargoes of ivory when also carrying victims of the slave trade, as both trades were closely linked.
‘It is a sad and shocking fact for that time that, in many cases, the ivory was more highly prized than the human cargo.
‘There were several leading slave trading companies during the 16th to early 19th Centuries, the Royal African Company among the leading companies for that period and who also traded in ivory.
‘Ships would have carried elephant tusks and slaves across the Atlantic to ports in Europe, to offload some cargo, take on supplies and then carry their human cargo onward to the colonies in the New World, and the East and West Indies.’
Dr Kelleher said the National Monuments Service’s Wreck Database of Ireland have recorded a number of wrecks from that period, including those carrying ivory and victims of slavery, that were lost around the coast of Ireland.
‘One, the Amity, a Royal African Company ship, was lost in the year 1700 in Dunworley Bay, Co. Cork, where tusks have been recovered,’ she recalls. ‘Another tusk was recovered several years ago in Baltimore Harbour and that may again suggest that a ship was lost in the area involved in the ivory trade.’
All wrecks in the territorial waters of Ireland that are over 100years old are protected under the National Monuments Acts.
A spokesman from the National Museum of Ireland said: ‘The tusk will be examined along with the information available in relation to its discovery. It could be of both zoological and archaeological interest depending on what emerges from examination at the museum.’
‘Ivory was more highly prized than human cargo’