Emigrants leaving. Scotts Quay, Queenstown
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Where: Cork, Ireland
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When: Unknown
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The "American Wake" is just a memory as the emigrants take to the tenders so that they may be transported to the liner that will carry them to the brave new world of opportunity. What mixture of excitement, sadness, anticipation and hope must have filled this scene as it was photographer by Robert French? We, today, can only imagine the sense of finality and loss that scenes such as this represented back when this was taken!
There's lots of information offered on the pier and tenders captured here - and more than a little refinement on the 20-year range suggested by the catalogue entry. On the pier, today's contributors point-out that it is still standing (just about) and was the departure point for White Star Line passengers. We see three passenger/luggage/mail tenders at the wharf. Though at least one is flying the flag of the the White Star Line, these steam tenders belonged to the port. The tenders are confirmed as "Ireland" (launched 1891), "Flying Fish" (launched 1886), and one other. This helps narrow the range to the 1890s (or possibly first few years of the 1900s). The "Ireland" seemingly tendered passengers of the Titanic, and the "Flying Fish" was involved in rescuing survivors of the Luisitania disaster - making the colloquial name of the wharf, "Heartbreak Pier", all the more poignant....
Photographer: Robert French
Collection: Lawrence Photograph Collection
Date: Catalogue range c.1880-1900. Though after 1891. And possibly close-to or after 1900.
NLI Ref: L_CAB_05258
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
Source: Flickr Commons
Views: 30249
There's lots of information offered on the pier and tenders captured here - and more than a little refinement on the 20-year range suggested by the catalogue entry. On the pier, today's contributors point-out that it is still standing (just about) and was the departure point for White Star Line passengers. We see three passenger/luggage/mail tenders at the wharf. Though at least one is flying the flag of the the White Star Line, these steam tenders belonged to the port. The tenders are confirmed as "Ireland" (launched 1891), "Flying Fish" (launched 1886), and one other. This helps narrow the range to the 1890s (or possibly first few years of the 1900s). The "Ireland" seemingly tendered passengers of the Titanic, and the "Flying Fish" was involved in rescuing survivors of the Luisitania disaster - making the colloquial name of the wharf, "Heartbreak Pier", all the more poignant....
Photographer: Robert French
Collection: Lawrence Photograph Collection
Date: Catalogue range c.1880-1900. Though after 1891. And possibly close-to or after 1900.
NLI Ref: L_CAB_05258
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
Info:
Owner: National Library of Ireland on The CommonsSource: Flickr Commons
Views: 30249
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sharon.corbet
The "Flying Fish" was on of the boats that rescued the survivors of the Lusitania.
O Mac
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland Lovely description above.
sharon.corbet
Streetview
sharon.corbet
PS Ireland was one of the boats that brought the last passengers to the Titanic.
DannyM8
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] Agreed, morning Mary at her best.
Wendy:
great image and history!
Niall McAuley
The whole "Flying Fish" can be seen in this poster (along with most of the Flying Fox.)
Dr. Ilia
Preciosa Skyline
O Mac
Flying Fish Launched: 07/11/1885 Completed: 13/03/1886 www.tynetugs.co.uk/flyingfish1886.html Ireland Launched: 25/02/1891 www.tynetugs.co.uk/ireland1891.html Earliest Date late 1891 Apparently the Flying Fish was known locally as the "Galloping Goose"
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] Ye'll have me blushing next!
Leonard Bentley
Hi, This is from the website "Lusitania online" and gives details of the efforts made by the Flying Fish and crew during the rescue efforts after the sinking of the Lusitania. The Wanderer was intercepted about two miles of the Old Head of Kinsale by the Admiralty tug the Flying Fish, under the command of Captain Thomas Brierley. The survivors were transferred to the tug and taken to Queenstown (Cobh), under Admiralty orders. Captain Brierley and the Flying Fish made several such trips, gathering and ferrying survivors from the scene to Queenstown, and many of those survivors owed their lives to him and his vessel. Most of the rescue ships were sailing vessels of the local fishing fleet and would have taken hours in the light winds prevailing that day to reach the scene of the disaster, 12 miles offshore. The Flying Fish was an old side-wheel paddle steamer built in 1886 at South Shields. Although just 122 feet long, and affectionately known amongst the locals in Queenstown as the "Galloping Goose", she rendered a service that day which far outshone her diminutive size. As well as serving as a tug, she was also used as a tender from the White Star Line pier at Queenstown, taking passengers and mail out to the waiting liners.Captain Thomas Brierley was born in 1859, and was 56 at the time of the disaster. He was awarded a medal for the outstanding gallantry he displayed during the endless trips he and his vessel made back and forth from Queenstown, to where the Lusitania had sunk. Bringing back the living, as well as the dead. What must have been particularly frustrating to this gallant mariner, was the fact that having heard of the disaster that had overtaken the Lusitania, he had to wait, champing at the bit, for over an hour, for Flying Fish to build up steam before they could head out to the scene, knowing all the while that lives were being lost all that time. Even after overcoming that obstacle, Captain Brierley found himself caught up in red tape later when he tried to land survivors at a pier not normally used by his vessel. He was kept waiting for "official permission" to dock, for what must have seemed like an eternity to him, when his only concern was to safely offload his human cargo as quickly as possible so that he could return to the scene and save more lives. Captain Brierley died in 1920, aged just 61. He was buried in the same area as many of the victims of the Lusitania disaster. Victims that he personally had tried so hard to save from the jaws of death.
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
Well done Morning Mary - that is definitely not a blurb! Thinking the hats are more early 1900s than pre-1900. Trove has contemporary descriptions of similar poignant scenes at Queenstown ... 1869 - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/169267566 1872 - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/104090562 1893 - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/104090562 including ... "... As in previous years, the emigrants are all nearly young unmarried men and women of the agricultural class [hence not many children in the photo], who would do credit to any country. They come principally from the Cormaught counties. However, Cork, Limerick, Clare, and Tipperary furnish a large oontingent." 1910 - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/105024718?searchTerm=e... including "... You can study America and its relation lo Ireland very well here in Cork. Through Cork most of the emigrants pass, and through Cork all the successful Irish pass on their way back to have a look round. II is a truly sad sight to see the spacious tenders of the big liners filled with the bloom of manhood and womanhood bound for America. It is a sight one does not care to see oftener than necessary. Queenstown Harbour is the last Irish view they get perhaps for ever, and a fine harbour it is. ..."
Niall McAuley
The double-decker tender to the right (we can only see the
backstern) is not the Flying Fox, anyhow.Niall McAuley
1909-10: Clyde Shipping Company, Ltd. — Allan Swan, manager, 50 Cathcart Street, Greenock. Offices in London, Southampton, Glasgow, Dublin, Cardiff, Queenstown, &c. Tug Steamers — Flying Witch, Flying Wizard, Flying Fish, Flying Fox, Flying Phantom, Flying Sportsman, Flying Elf, Flying Sprite, Flying Dutchman, Flying Spindrift, Flying Mist, Flying Scotsman, Flying Swift, Flying Linnet, Flying Falcon, Flying Swallow, and Flying Cormorant. Tenders— America, and Ireland. Telegraphic Address — "Cumbrae."
Niall McAuley
The AMERICA was also launched in 1891.
Niall McAuley
From The Coming of the Comet: The Rise and Fall of the Paddle Steamer: The Ireland and America each had a deck saloon from the paddle boxes almost to the stern, and a separate saloon beneath the bridge which offered segregated accommodation in three classes, although steerage was by far the largest of the saloons (and most austere). I think the tender at right is the stern of the America.
Niall McAuley
What we can see matches this shot of the America alongside a liner, and this one of both tenders.
guliolopez
Per [https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]]'s StreetView, that is the White Star Pier at Queenstown. So these passengers and luggage are likely being tendered to a White Star vessel. The Cappuchins have an image of the Flying Fox at the Kennedy (Cunard?) Pier. The tenders were attached to the port company (rather than the shipping companies), so would service passengers from different piers and to vessels of different shipping companies. We're probably looking at White Star passengers here though.
Melinda Young Stuart
My great-grandmother was among them in the late 1850s.
silverio10
Buenas fotos antiguas .
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
Excellent - Thanks so much all. As if the emigration stories weren't enough to give credence to the name "Heartbreak Pier", the connections with the Lusitania (via the "PS Flying Fish"), and the Titanic (via "PS Ireland") push it over the edge. Hopefully the passengers pictured here went on to better things State-side! Description/etc all updated...
anubis_1star
wordy
mikescottnz
...and so informative. A picture (or good photography) tells or shows a thousand words...
toquinn55
My ancestor (David Quinn) came to America as an indentured servant aboard the Bristol Merchant in 1685. His servitude was to the Thomas Webb Family of Dublin.