Classic Boat — February 2018

72 CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2018

THE LOSS OF OONA

At 2.30pm on 11 May, Oona was sighted by the SS

Montague, 12 miles ENE of the South Arklow Lightship,

making good progress. Whether Oona’s crew were able

to detect a rapid fall in the barometer is unknown, but at

11.30pm a gale sprang up, when Oona was 20 miles east

of Bray Head. She now faced a night at sea in a Force 9

and driving snow. With little in the way of waterproof

clothing, her crew must have been in a sorry state by the

time morning came.

On the morning of 12 May two men walking along

the beach to the north of Malahide spotted a yacht in

distress off Lambay Island. An easterly gale was still

blowing and there were high waves, with the tide

sweeping southwards. The men lost no time in alerting

the local coastguard station, which then sent a messenger

on foot to warn the station down tide as well.

At about 10am, Oona was seen by Captain Jones of

the schooner Prospect, which was sheltering in the lee of

Lambay Island. Oona was two miles SSW of the island,

close-hauled on port tack, under reefed trysail and reefed

foresail, with topmast housed, trying to beat into the

same anchorage as Prospect. She was seen to be making

good progress and managed to get within 400 yards of

Prospect when she started to sag away. Jones could

clearly see her crew go forward to take down her foresail

to allow her to tack, but from that point she lost ground

with every tack. Jones’ last view of Oona, in the murky

visibility, was of her lying head to sea, perhaps with her

anchor down. Soon after this, watchers on shore saw her

mast disappear and Oona vanished to all, her white

painted topsides making her invisible in the seas. The

coastguard organised a shore party to make its way to a

point, three quarters of a mile south of Malahide, where

it was estimated that Oona would come ashore.

THE EVIDENCE

The exact cause of the loss of Oona has to be a matter of

conjecture. There was no evidence that her keel had

failed as a direct result of the heavy weather. An

examination of the hull showed that the mainhorse had

broken, possibly due to poor casting. As a result, the

crew would have eased the trysail sheet to reduce the

pressure on the horse. This in turn would have caused

the trysail to start to flog. The trysail was found to be

torn across two of its vertical panels and then down the

third panel towards the foot, a failure caused no doubt

by the practice at that time of not roping the entire

length of the foot and the leech of a trysail. No longer

able to go to windward, Oona would have been at the

mercy of the onshore wind and the ebb tide sweeping

south between the mainland and Lambay Island. This

carried her first over the shallows of Hoskin’s Patch, off

Lambay Island, and then over the notorious bar that

extends a mile out to sea off Malahide.

The Armstrong

Mitchell company

in Elswick on the

banks of the

Tyne, where

Paton designed

Oona

inspected Oona during construction and were impressed

by the care that Paton had taken in his design

calculations, including the various load factors, as well as

the construction plans. Oona was probably the smallest

composite-built racer of that time, with 10 steel angle

frames, interspaced with steamed timbers. She was

planked with one-inch thick yellow pine.

PAINTED SALOON

Oona was launched on 24 April 1886. Her radical

design did not meet with universal praise. Land and

Water described her as “an abortion of extreme

proportions” and “a long-legged lead mine”.

Internally her accommodation consisted of a

forecastle with three berths and a large pantry. Aft of the

saloon was a cabin with two berths. The saloon was

decorated with panels painted by various artists. The

floor was of polished oak and the wood fittings were of

cedar and pine. The whole was “handsome and

wonderfully light”. Under the floor was a wine cellar.

As can be seen from her midship section, Oona was

no fin-keeler; she practically had no bilge. Paton believed

that by doing away with the bilge he could get rid of

some of the enormous transverse wave-making to which

those craft were prone.

Oona, with Paton and Gardner on board, took part

in a series of trials off Calshott in the Solent against the

20-tonner Clara. Under club topsail and in a steady

breeze, Oona, by far the smaller vessel, had no difficulty

in keeping abreast of Clara. Dixon Kemp, writing in The

Field, described Oona as a marvel.

Oona left Southampton on 4 May 1886, bound for

Belfast, with Joseph Plunkett, Paton and two hands,

George Grace and Frederick West, under experienced

skipper Captain Ethelbert Porter – both captain and

crew were from Southampton. Oona was a mere eight

days old. The reason for the rush was to get Oona ready

for the Clyde regattas in May. Her design would have

made her a very wet boat to sail. Land and Water

commented that “a spell on a porpoise’s back would be

equally comfortable going” for the “venturesome souls”

taking her down Channel and then up the Irish Sea.

From the night of 10 May severe weather set into the

north Irish Sea, with hail falling at Newry. The Times

described how Dublin, on the Tuesday, underwent a

change from the genial heat of summer to stormy

conditions and a wintry cold. Snow fell in south west

Scotland, with between two to four inches falling on

Westmoreland and Cumberland.

“Fighting for their lives, the crew

sawed through her 7-inch diameter

mast to reduce windage”