Return of the French Admiral’s barges
THE admiral’s barges will be back in Bantry Bay next July, 215 years after their last historic visit.
In December 1796, one of these barges was launched in the unrelenting foul weather, gales, snow, and poor visibility which greeted an ill-fated French invasion fleet.
Communication between the French warships in Bantry Bay was virtually impossible. Sent to get help from another vessel, the sailors in the barge instead foundered on Bere Island, and were taken into custody by waiting British forces.
The boat was eventually removed to Bantry House, and this remarkably well-preserved barge — some of the original paint is still intact — is said to be the oldest surviving French Navy vessel. It is also the prototype for the many boats which take part in the Atlantic Challenge event next July in the bay which is overlooked by the statue of Theobald Wolfe Tone which stands in solitary contemplation in Bantry Square.
Whatever long-term results Tone might have envisaged as a result of bringing the French fleet to Ireland, next year’s event which involves 15 countries and will bring more than 300 visitors to Bantry, probably wasn’t on his list of possibilities.
Nevertheless, the Atlantic Challenge was directly inspired by one of the original French boats. In the words of Irish yachting journalist WM Nixon, the rescued longboat was “just about the only useful result of the ill-fated French expedition to Bantry Bay”.
It all began in the early 1980s when Atlantic Challenge founder Lance Lee, a man who supported the Outward Bound School’s philosophy of outdoor pursuits for young people, met with friends from France and Norway who had sailed to the Azores where they exchanged seafaring information. They discussed setting up an international teaching organisation.
Later, this same trio organised a match-boat contest for young people. An essential part of this project was finding a suitable craft, and from a short-list of possible vessels, the ill-fated admiral’s barge or longboat from the 1796 French invasion fleet was finally chosen and re-created by the various crews. These boats have affectionately been christened “Bantries”, today there are over 70 Bantry Bay yawls worldwide.
The rig is a three-masted dipping lug, an adaptation of 18th and 19th century British and French fishing craft. Pulled by ten oars, it calls for a strong, well-coordinated crew.
For almost 150 years, the original vessel lay undisturbed in a shed at Bantry House, until 1944, when a member of the Shelswell-White family of Bantry House presented it to the National Museum. It was eventually transported to the newly opened National Maritime Museum of Ireland.
A remarkable feature of this 200-year-old plus vessel is what is believed to be some original paintwork in the French colours of red, white and blue.
The first Atlantic Challenge contest took place in 1986 in New York Harbour, between the US and France. By 1988, Irish and Danish crews were also participating; 1996 saw events come full circle when, for the first time, the contest took place in Bantry Bay.
The Challenge organisers say that seamanship trains the mind to action, and cite the example of Otto Pletten, cast adrift in the frozen North Sea during WW11. Pletten promptly pulled the boat’s plug and hurled it away, forcing the crew to resort to furious bailing and thereby saving their lives.
While such drastic tactics won’t be needed next July, inculcating this ethos of fast thinking, self-reliance and first-class seamanship in young crews will be much in evidence during the two weeks of events which will include sailing races, slalom, man overboard, and knots and navigation.
Local crew leaders John O’Sullivan, Jack Price and Micheal Young are already in training, as no doubt, are the crews from 16 other countries. including Russia, Indonesia and Spain.
Crews will number 20 per boat. In addition to the crews, many family and friends are also expected to enjoy the seafaring spectacle.
The Bantry 2012 Committee are charged with the task of fundraising for this important international event. To that end, they have organised a dinner dance on November 18 in the Westlodge Hotel, and an innovative quiz, Know Your Sport, with a top prize of €1,000.
For more information, see the www.bantry2012.com and www.atlanticchallenge.org websites
THEOBALD WOLFE TONE is regarded as the father of Irish Republicanism. His statue in Bantry’s square depicts an elegant, slender figure, a thoughtful-looking young man who would surely celebrate next July’s life-affirming celebration of seamanship and international camaraderie linked to a vessel beached so many years ago.
Tone was born in 1763 and died in prison in 1798, eight days after he attempted suicide.
Born in Dublin, he was the son of Church of Ireland coach maker, Peter Tone, a member of the Church of Ireland — although there were rumours circulating that he was the natural son of his godfather, Theobald Wolfe, first cousin of Arthur Wolfe, Viscount Kilwarden.
And these aristocratic connections may have been responsible for prolonging his life more than once. Even before he became politicised, Wolfe Tone was never one to shy away from conflict. While working as tutor to the sons of MP Richard Martin, he had an affair with Martin’s wife, and a duel was narrowly avoided.
Tone turned his attentions to Irish politics in 1790, when the influence of the French Revolution made waves throughout the western world. He urged co-operation between the different religions in Ireland, as the only means of obtaining redress of Irish grievances.
Tone turned these beliefs into practical policy in 1791, by founding the Society of the United Irishmen with Napper Tandy and Thomas Russell. It was the word “united” which alarmed the British aristocracy.
By 1794, the United Irishmen had begun to hope for a French invasion. When a clergyman, the Reverend William Jackson, a French agent, unwisely disclosed his clandestine meeting with Tone, and the inflammatory document Tone had given him, Jackson was arrested on charges of treason.
France and Britain had been at war since 1793, and Tone did not regard himself bound by agreements with the British Government to abstain from conspiracy — agreements that, along with his supposed aristocratic connections, may have kept him out of prison. He went to Paris to persuade the French that the time was right to invade Ireland.
In 1796, 43 ships, carrying some 14,000 men, sailed from Brest for Ireland.
The expedition was fraught with problems from the start and during the first night at sea, two chiefs of command Admiral Morard de Gailes and General Hoche were separated from the fleet, and were not seen again until their return to France.
Unrelenting foul weather, gales, snow, poor visibility, lack of leadership, and poor ship-to-ship communication, scattered the fleet.
Tone, by now known as Adjutant-General Smith, was full of contempt for the French sailors who were unable to land in Bantry due to the severe gales.
He wrote in his diary: “December 21, in all my life, rage never entered so deeply into my heart as when we turned our back on the coast.”
But even these desperate experiences did little to deter him from his mission. Tone masterminded another small expedition later that year, landing in Killala Bay but finding little support from local people. Tone was captured and brought to Dublin, where he was tried by court martial and sentenced to be hanged, although he requested to be shot, as befitted a solider.
But he foiled his adversaries by attempting suicide before this sentence could be carried out. He died on November 19, 1798, aged 35, in Provost’s Prison in Dublin.
Emily Wolfe (1892 — 1980) the last of the Wolfes to live in Kildare, continued her family tradition of annually laying flowers at Tone’s grave until her death.
“His judgement of men and things was keen, lucid and masculine, and he was alike prompt in decision and brave in action,” 19th century historian William Lecky commented.
