Cymric (schooner)
Cymric was a British and Irish schooner, built in 1893. She joined the South American trade in the fleet of Arklow, Ireland, in 1906. She served as a British Q-ship during the First World War; she failed to sink any German U-boats, but did sink a British submarine in error.[2]
After the war, she returned to the British and, later, the Irish merchant service. In Ringsend, Ireland, she collided with a tram, her bowsprit smashing through the tram's windows.[3] In 1944, during the Second World War, sailing as a neutral, she vanished without trace with the loss of eleven lives.
Arklow, Ireland, has a long history of ship-owning. According to local tradition, it extends back to the export of tin and copper by the Phoenicians.[4] The fleet was locally owned, managed, mastered and manned. Each ship was an individual enterprise, each divided into 64 shares. A captain would probably have a 25% interest in his ship: that is 16 shares.[5] The owner listed in documents was the managing owner, not necessarily the beneficial owner. The Arklow shipowners cooperated: they established their own mutual insurance company.[6] A century ago, ownership became concentrated. In 1966 Tyrrell and Hall formed an umbrella company to operate their ships: Arklow Shipping.[7] By November 2011 they had a modern fleet of about 45 ships.[8]
Two Arklow schooners, Cymric and Gaelic, were built by William Thomas in Amlwch. Cymric was launched in March 1893.[9] Gaelic was launched in March 1898.[10] They were built as barquentines,[i] In Arklow, the preferred sail configuration was the double top sailed schooner.[5] In 1906, Cymric joined the Arklow fleet and was rigged as a schooner.[ii]
Cymric was an iron schooner. She had a shallow draught of only 10.8 feet, three wooden masts, no poop deck, a flaring bow, a round counter-stern and very square yards on her fore mast. She was built by the Thomas yard for their own fleet. Her early days, under Captain Robert Jones, were spent in the South American trade running from Runcorn to Gibraltar and on to the Rio Grande, docking at the Brazilian port of Porto Alegre.[11][12] In 1906 she was sold to Captain Richard Hall of Arklow.[13]
In the new century, 1900, there was an expansion in the Arklow fleet, as larger iron-hulled schooners were purchased. Job Tyrrell purchased Detlef Wagner and Maggie Williams, while Job Hall acquired Patrician, Celtic and Cymric. In the main, all of these ships engaged in the Spanish wine trade until Detlef Wagner was sunk[14] by UC-72 on 28 May 1917[15]
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