Alexander Mitchell | Inventor of the screw-pile lighthouse
Alexander Mitchell’s (13th April 1780 – 25th June 1868) story is inspirational – despite his complete blindness he used his incredible engineering…
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A Green Flare and St Patrick’s Day Reprieve for SS Irish Willow
Fundraiser for New Lusitania Museum in Cork just Launched
A Man, a Plan, a Submarine: John Philip Holland
Robert Halpin | The Irishman who Revolutionized Global Communications
Maritime Dun Laoghaire | Remembering Captain Boyd and his Brave Men
Designing Grandeur | Thomas Andrews, Chief Designer of the Titanic
Remembering the Sea Horse lost off Tramore | 30th January 1816
Celebrating Greats | Annie Massy, World-renowned Mollusc Expert
Remembering the SS Laurentic | 25th January 1917
While the career of the SS Laurentic was short-lived, it was marked by some remarkable events. Long after her tragic demise, when…
Lost at Lambay Island | The tragic story of the RMS Tayleur
In January of 1854, a ship hailed as the biggest, fastest and safest vessel of her kind, pride of the White Star…
Irish Titanic dive veteran Rory Golden to join 2021 Titanic Expedition
OceanGate Expeditions has announced Rory Golden as an expeditionary expert who will join the Titanic Survey Expedition 2021. Golden has over 44…
The Waste of War | Loss of HMS Viknor off Tory Island
On January 13th 1915, the armed merchant cruiser HMS Viknor was lost off Tory Island, Donegal. The ship went down without even…
Celebrating the Life of Maude Jane Delap | Marine Science Pioneer
Kerry’s Maude Jane Delap, a self-taught marine biologist, was a scientific pioneer ahead of her time. Working out of her remote island…
A Seapoint tragedy – Loss of the Rochdale and Prince of Wales
On calm sunny afternoons at Seapoint it’s hard to imagine the bay as anything other than a steady and benign body of water, welcoming bathers,…
Kish Lightship Withdrawn from Service | 9th November 1965
For 150 years, beginning in 1811, a lightship was moored at the sandy shallows of the Kish bank off Dublin, aiding mariners on…
Lost on Carlingford Lough | Remembering the Connemara and Retriever
On the 3rd of November 1916 the passenger ferry SS Connemara collided with the collier SS Retriever. This was the worst maritime disaster to…
Six Terrifying Tales & Unexplained Mysteries from the Irish Coast
Halloween is the unique time of year when we get to revel in the macabre and enjoy a good scare or two….
HMS Audacious | An Early Casualty in the Great War
HMS Audacious – Stuck a mine and sank off Donegal, Ireland – 27th October 1914 HMS Audacious, built in 1912, was a…
The Long and Illustrious Career of RMS Olympic
On this day – 20th October 1910 – the RMS Olympic was launched. RMS Olympic was the first of the three magnificent sisters…
The First of the Guinness Fleet – The W.M Barkley
On the 12th October 1917 the W.M. Barkley, sailing from Dublin to Liverpool with a cargo full of Guinness, was torpedoed by a German…
Man of Steel – The first brave diver to the RMS Lusitania
6th October 1935 – The wreck of the RMS Lusitania located off the southwest coast of Ireland. The sinking of the RMS Lusitania…
HMS Drake struck by U-Boat off Rathlin Island | 2nd October 1917
On October 2nd 1917 HMS Drake was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Rathlin Island, Co. Antrim. Today the…
Victorian Tragedy – Coast Guard rescue crew off Bray Seafront
Bound for Liverpool, the Leona would get lost and sink off Bray. In heavy weather and tragic circumstances, three crew members and…
The Sinking of HMS Wasp – A Mystery Veiled in Darkness
On the morning of September 22nd 1884 the HMS Wasp was sent on the less than savoury task of ferrying police and…
It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day! Here’s a look at Ireland’s Piratey Past
As an island nation we have produced some of the world’s most renowned seafarers – they’ve led explorations around the globe, helped create…
SS Empire Heritage and the Sherman Tanks of Malin Head
The SS Empire Heritage was built in 1930 by Armstrong Whitworth & Company in Newcastle-upon-Tyne but actually started life under another name as…
Sinking of SS Athenia: The First British Ship Lost in World War 2
It was only a few hours after British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had delivered his 11 am speech declaring war on Germany the…
HMS Guide Me II lost off Dublin Bay | 29th August 1918
The HMS Guide Me II was a steam drifter built in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1907. During the First World War in March…
SS Arabic: Bound for America, sunk off Kinsale (1915)
The impressive SS Arabic was built in the Belfast shipyards of Harland and Wolff for the illustrious White Star Line. She was…
Donegal’s Seafaring History | Inishowen Maritime Museum & Planetarium
The Inishowen Maritime Museum in Donegal has long been on Coast Monkey’s bucket list, and with its fascinating maritime displays and exhibits,…
New York sailboat survivors rescued by Irish Rose (1942)
On this day August 11th 1942, an Irish ship was in the right place at the right time and rescued the survivors of…
Howth Gun running: The Asgard’s Story
The Asgard’s contribution to Irish history is considerable; the guns it delivered to Howth in 1914 would go on to arm the rebels…
20th July 1918 | SS Justicia Sinks off Malin Head after Sustained Attack
On the 20th July 1918, after a grueling 22 hour assault involving two separate U-boats, the SS Justicia finally succumbed and went…
RMS Carpathia Remembered | Titanic Rescue saved hundreds of Lives
On the 17th July 1918, the RMS Carpathia was lost 190 km south of Cork. A transatlantic passenger steamship, she made her maiden…
Remembering the SS Arandora Star Lost off Donegal 2nd July 1940
In the early hours of 2nd July 1940 the SS Arandora Star was struck by a torpedo off the Donegal coast and…
Defending Ireland’s Coastline | Irish Torpedo Boats in the 1940s
When war came to Europe in 1939, Ireland needed boats to protect her waters and her neutrality. With the establishment of Marine and…
Celebrating Admiral William Brown Father of the Argentine Navy
Ireland has produced some of the world’s finest captains, skilled seafarers and formidable military strategists. And it’s no surprise their influence can be…
Epicentre of Science | Robert Mallet’s Explosive Experiments on Killiney Beach
In 1849 Irishman Robert Mallet (3 June 1810 – 5 November 1881) carried out experiments on Killiney beach in Dublin creating groundbreaking…
Francis Beaufort (1774-1857) Creator of the Wind Force Scale
Sir Francis Beaufort was born in Navan, Co Meath on 27th May 1774 and from an early age was an enthusiastic explorer…