SS Moyalla – 1946 Sinking & Ireland’s First Scuba Salvage | Season 4 – Episode 96
Floats Dec 17, 2024
The S.S. Moyalla ran aground in Galway Bay on February 17th 1946 under disputed circumstances. Her cargo included everything from copper pipes and Jamaica rum to Ireland’s first post-WWII shipment of floor linoleum. In the early 1950s, salvage efforts by Dooley & Co. to reclaim this valuable cargo marked the first commercial use of scuba diving gear in Ireland.
THE LIMERICK STEAM SHIP COMPANY
Founded in 1853, the company provided essential shipping services between Limerick on Ireland’s west coast and London. By World War I, it had expanded to include regular routes to the Bristol Channel, Liverpool and Northern European ports, operating three 5,000-ton ships. After losing five vessels during the war, the company initiated a rebuilding program, including the construction of the 58m, 642 GRT S.S. Moyalla by Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Dundee.
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S.S. MOYALLA
The S.S. Moyalla was designed with a 12’6″ draft to navigate the River Moy to Ballina, County Mayo. Despite this, she ran aground on the Moy Sandbar off Ballina in November 1930, remaining stranded for two weeks.
Incidents were not uncommon for ships operating in the western ports of Ireland and Britain in the 1930s, and the S.S. Moyalla was no exception. She regularly visited Mullaghmore Harbour in Co. Sligo to collect cargos of kelp and ran aground during one of these visits. According to the Mullaghmore and Cliffoney Historical Society, she was likely the last ship in living memory to dock at the harbour, around 1932.
RESCUING S.S. CAMLOUGH
In January 1932, while en route from Ballina, County Mayo to Liverpool under Captain William Goggin, the S.S. Moyalla encountered a gale in the North Channel and came across the disabled 540-ton Kelly Collier, S.S. Camlough. After a gruelling 12-hour effort, which included the loss of seven tow lines, the Moyalla successfully towed the Camlough into Luce Bay, southwest Scotland. There, the ship was beached, and the crew was rescued by the Portpatrick lifeboat.
GALWAY GROUNDING
After surviving multiple grounding incidents and World War 2, the S.S. Moyalla met an unfortunate end on February 17th 1946. She was enroute from Liverpool to Galway, carrying 400 tons of cargo, including 36 tons of valuable copper pipes along with tar, soda, ammonia and domestic essentials. This marked the first shipment to the Port of Galway since before the war, featuring valuable goods like Jamaica rum and Ireland’s first post-WWII delivery of floor linoleum.
Around midnight the Moyalla went off course and struck Black Rock, reported by the crew due to heavy fog, though this claim was later disputed in the official inquiry. After grounding off Salthill, the engine room flooded rapidly. Despite the crew’s best efforts to save the vessel, she began listing heavily and at 4:30 a.m., the 14-member crew, led by Captain Eugene O’Sullivan, abandoned ship.
OFFICIAL ENQUIRY
After the Moyalla grounding, confusion emerged about the weather conditions on the night and Captain Ralph Ryan, a Nautical Surveyor was appointed by the Minister for Industry and Commerce, to conduct an inquiry into the incident.
The investigation revealed that Limerick Steam Ship Company vessels typically picked up pilots further out in Galway Bay using a pilot flag signal. On the night of the grounding, the Galway Bay pilots stated that the Moyalla did not display the signal flag, so they did not proceed to assist. This contradicted the ship’s crew, who reported thick fog, as the pilots claimed they could see the Moyalla from the shoreline. Additionally, the harbour master testified that there had been no request for fog signals in the bay on the date of the grounding.
SALVAGE – FIRST ATTEMPT
The Liverpool and Glasgow Salvage Association was contracted to salvage the Moyalla. Soon after, the 755-ton motor salvage vessel S.S. Help arrived in Galway Harbour. Built in 1943 for D-Day operations, she had cleared Cherbourg and Le Havre after the German occupation. On loan from the Admiralty, the S.S. Help was commanded by Captain Rees, a veteran of the Sicily and Italy invasions and the clearing of Antwerp Harbour, with senior salvage officer H. Thomas, who had experience of salvaging 483 ships along the coasts of Britain and Ireland.
The ship was now stranded high and dry on the flat rock, settled by the bow, with the stern nearly exposed and the propeller almost completely out of the water. The salvage of the Moyalla was planned in three stages: first, to right the vessel, patch it, and pump it dry; second, to bring it to the harbour for unloading; and finally, to transport it to a yard for repairs. The salvage plan involved constructing a timber cradle with tripods attached to the ship’s bottom to help upright it.
The steamer S.S. Help from the Salvage Association managed to raise the Moyalla and place her on cradles, with two salvage pumps keeping her water-free. However, a rising breeze caused the Moyalla to break free from the cradles, sinking back into deeper water with a salvage pump trapped beneath her. Efforts to fully salvage the vessel were abandoned on June 15, 1946, despite the wreck posing a hazard to shipping.
SCUBA GEAR
Following the British capture of Italian diving gear designs in WWII, the Royal Navy adopted the technology. Around 1956, Christopher Dooley, recently discharged from the RAF, where he had served as an engineer brought the first scuba gear to Ireland, including a dry suit, Siebe Gorman bottles and a Mistral valve, which he purchased at Lillywhite’s in London, along with the only available training text, The Physiology of Diving. Early on, Dooley transported oxygen bottles to London for filling, as Galway lacked a breathing air compressor.
Dooley’s first salvage operation involved recovering the bronze propeller of the S.S. Okeanos in Carrigaholt Bay, County Clare. The 7,000-ton Greek vessel had grounded in 1947 after unloading grain in Limerick. The Hammond Lane scrap company had previously salvaged the ship to the waterline, but Dooley’s goal was the valuable propeller. Using explosives, he freed its six-foot blades and boss, selling it to a Cork scrap dealer.
Each week, we travel far and wide to bring you our unique Irish transport stories. If you’d like to help cover travel costs, please consider subscribing for just €2 a month via www.irelandmade.ie —less than the price of a cup of coffee!
SALVAGE – SECOND ATTEMPT
After consulting with Lloyds of London, the copper cargo owners, and the Commissioners of Irish Lights, Christopher Dooley received written permission to proceed. The wreck was reported to lie along the meridian line in the bay, where jurisdiction shifted from the Harbour Board to Irish Lights.
With a five-man team, Messrs Dooley & Co. began salvage operations by mooring their salvage barge near the wreck, where the smokestack remained 6–10 feet above water at low tide. The copper aboard the sunken ship was in good condition and deemed worth salvaging, though there were initial concerns it might have been damaged by acid in the cargo of the vessel. Other cargo such as wines, spirits, bicycles and motorbikes had been destroyed or corroded by seawater.
Over time, the cargo had shifted, leaving the copper tubes tangled in the hold. To extract them, the team used explosives to blow away part of the ship’s side, allowing the tubes to be brought to the surface by crane. To access the copper in the aft hold, Dooley had to dive to the wreck and blast open the small hold covers to create a sufficiently large opening.
If you have an idea for a story, email Kevin Reid [email protected]
Sources of Information and Photo Credits:
Capuchin Archives
CG-45
Connaught Tribune
Galway: A Maritime Tradition – Brendan O’Donnell
Irish Wrecks Online
Limerick City Website
Mullaghmore Active Group
Mullaghmore and Cliffoney Historical Society
Photo – John Gillespie
Ships Nostalgia
The Benbulbin Barytes Miners – The Forgotten Story by Gerry Foley
The Mariner Website
Wreck Site
