The following is an interesting story submitted to "News Four" by Sandymount Residents' Association's stalwart member, Jim Casey of Church Avenue.

If you woke up one morning and heard there was a schooner on Sandymount Strand, you could imagine the excitement it would cause. Well this actually did happen. The name of the schooner was The Solway Lass. Some years ago, my wife Rita and I were visiting my brother in New Zealand, and we began talking about our younger days and recalling our youth in Sandymount. I mentioned about the schooner on the strand. I had often thought about it before but could not remember the year that it happened. So, I decided that when I came back home I would do some research on the incident. I spoke to a number of people who were living in Sandymount at that time but nobody remembered much about it, except Peter Healy of Newgrove Avenue who had taken a photograph of it
and kindly gave it to me.

I also wrote to Lloyd's of London and Dumfries Port of Scotland and made other enquiries without success. Then, recently, my daughter Deirdre came across an article in a maritime magazine written by Roy Stokes. I contacted Roy and, within half an hour, he was able to ring me with the date of the incident, which was all important to the story.

"The Solway Lass" was the name of the schooner which had landed on Sandymount Strand. It left Liverpool on 10th March 1937 heading for the Wicklow Corn Company at Arklow with a cargo of coal on board. About twenty miles off Skerries, the schooner ran into gales. The auxillary engine failed and the ship was left to the mercy of the wind. Word of the vessel's plight was brought by the captain of the Dún Laoghaire mail boat. The life boat went out to assist but was unable to be of any help. Efforts to reach the vessel by shooting a life line by rocket failed owing to the distance from shore. By that time, however, the schooner had run aground between Newgrove Avenue and Marine Drive in Sandymount.

The cargo of coal had to be unloaded in order to get the schooner re-floated. This was a slow operation as horse-drawn drays were used and only small amounts could be taken at a time. Garda John Conway from Irishtown Police Station arrived on the scene and interviewed Captain J. Anderson and crew members William Payne and Joseph Canning, all from Liverpool. The captain told the garda that the crew were safe although the schooner was badly damaged. Eventually, the ship was refloated and returned to port for repairs.

That was sixty years ago and the schooner is today in Sydney, Australia and is used as a harbour charter boat. In fact, if any of our readers in Australia could send me a photograph and some details of her working life we would be most grateful.

I do hope that this story will bring back happy memories of Sandymount Strand to people who were around at that period.