A community of Wicklow maritime enthusiasts, after many months of planning, has secured large sections of Arklow's historic last sail cargo vessel ‘De Wadden’ that were returned to the schooner’s home port, having been a static-ship exhibit in the UK.

In a race against time, Arklow locals implored Wicklow County Council last December to help them save parts of the “last Arklow coastal trading vessel under sail” before the schooner was demolished.

De Wadden was built in 1917 in The Netherlands and, from 1922, had a long serving career and an illustrious association with the port town of Arklow. As Afloat highlights, the port is the homeport of Arklow Shipping Ltd, the Republic’s largest indigenous owned ship company/owner operating an Irish flagged fleet along with a Dutch division based in Rotterdam.

For almost four decades, De Wadden, a three-masted auxiliary schooner, had formed a static exhibit in the National Museum’s Liverpool (Maritime Museum), was slated for deconstruction after their search for a new home for the vessel had proved fruitless.

One of the founders of Arklow Shipping Ltd (which formed as a co-op in 1966) Captain Victor Hall, owned De Wadden, and since 1984, the vessel, along with other vessels, has been exhibited in dry-dock at the Maritime Museum, where an ambitious restoration plan was drawn up. Among the main museum staff members involved in the project was Arklow native, John Kearon.

For more the Wicklow People (Irish Independent) reports, noting that, according to the Maritime Museum’s website, today (10 April) is closed due to industrial action.

Afloat adds the schooner according to the book: ‘Arklow-last Stronghold of Sail’ was the last to trade in the Irish Sea, calling to ports on both sides, with cargoes, chiefly, coal from Scotland, England, and on return passages, pit props, gravel, and burnt ore from Arklow.

Maritime enthusiasts from Arklow have implored Wicklow County Council to help them in their race against the clock to save parts of an historic auxiliary sailing cargo-ship, the last of its type to serve on the Irish Sea.

The local community of enthusiasts say that the De Wadden is the “last Arklow coastal trading vessel under sail” before she’s demolished.

As Afloat prevously reported, the Dutch-built schooner has a long and illustrious association with Arklow, before the three-masted cargo ship became part of the Liverpool Maritime Museum of over several decades. The ship was acquired in 1984 and is preserved in Canning dry-dock, part of the museum’s waterfront on Merseyside based at the Albert Dock. .

De Wadden was slated for deconstruction after the LMM’s search for a new home for the former sail-cargo ship proved fruitless.

The vessel was built by a Dutch yard, Gebr Van Diepen in 1917 for the Netherlands Steamship Company.

After the end of the WWI, De Wadden was sold to Irish owner, Richard Hall of Arklow. For almost 40 years the cargo ship traded on the Irish Sea, carrying cargo in bulk between the Mersey to various Irish ports where at Arklow the cargoship was part of his merchant sail vessel fleet until 1961.

On completion of trading duties, the schooner was sold to have a career in Scotland for use as a leisure charter fishing vessel.

De Wadden however returned to her Irish Sea routes when purchased by the Merseyside Maritime Museum in 1984 and several years later was dry docked to enable a programme of conservation and restoration.

More from Irish Independent.ie on the schooner.