The 7,000 or more who have enjoyed cruises on the State training vessel, Asgard II, during the past 18 years are unlikely to know the amount of research and designing that the late Jack Tyrrell of Arklow put into that graceful, 86-foot brigantine. Long before approval had been given to build it, Jack Tyrrell was working on the plans in his office overlooking Arklow's dock.
As well as applying the experience of having designed and built hundreds of fishing vessels, work craft and yachts, he also applied up-to-date methods to achieve the best stability, speed and functionalism for his boats, and none received more detailed attention than Asgard II. Sitting at his drawing-board, or when sailing on his yacht, Aisling of Arklow, he used to talk about the requirements expected of a training vessel.
"I was strongly influenced by the design of the Grand Banks schooners that worked the American east coast. They had to be fast so as to get back quickly with their fish, and they had to be very seaworthy to withstand foul weather," he pointed out between puffs at his rarely cold pipe.
Exact model
But the hull design of Asgard II was also tried out in the Saunders Roe test tank in Southampton to check its seakeeping qualities. An exact model of the hull was drawn through water at various speeds to test its efficiency in different wave conditions. In the old days a half-model of a hull was carved for scrutiny and that decided the shape.
Yet, even for John Tyrrell, Fellow of the Royal Institute of Naval Architects, other, less scientific considerations may have had a bearing on nautical decisions.
We were sailing in his yacht towards the Isle of Man some time in the 1970s, and while he and his wife Dorothy were dining below, I was steering on that beautiful sunny day with the wind just behind us. Perhaps through delight I began to whistle, not for a moment thinking of the old sailor's superstition that to whistle at sea is to bring up nasty winds. Jack popped his head up from the saloon and asked me if that was me whistling. "Yes," I replied, "but you don't believe in those piseogs, do you?" "Of course not," said Jack, "but you don't go against them all the same."
In Ireland there are many superstitions related to the sea and seafarers, and these have been brilliantly assembled in a thesis by Bairbre O Floinn of the folklore department at UCD. They reflect a richness of sea culture as well as revealing the wise, universal apprehension concerning that element that covers 71 per cent of the earth's surface.
Many of the men applying the most advanced fishing methods hold their own superstitious beliefs. For instance, Albert Swan of Killybegs, renowned in the eastern Atlantic for his fishing successes in his skippering days, told me that he would never turn the bow of his trawler against the direction of the sun when leaving port in the morning, no matter how many backings and forwardings he would have to do to get away.
Superstitions
In her 356-page thesis, Ms O Floinn wrote that the most surprising aspect of the great development of the Irish fishing industry in the 1960s and 1970s was that the prejudices and superstitions had not entirely disappeared without trace. Two of her most informative interviewees were young fishermen operating expensive, sophisticated trawlers.
Apart from referring in detail to furry animals as being unlucky and not to be mentioned at sea, and to the belief that meeting a red-haired woman brought poor catches, she gives scores of examples of local superstitions. What is particularly interesting is her assembly of the countless euphemisms devised to refer safely to unlucky subjects. That is why she called her thesis "Cold Iron and the Cast", the cold iron being another form of the "touch wood" tradition.
In many parts of the west coast it was deemed unlucky to use the word "salmon" while fishing for that species. In some places they were called the "silvery fellows", in others "the boys". In some places, rats in places were known as "rough tails". Her thesis well deserves the attention of some publisher.
On the farm
While it is understandable, perhaps, that so many superstitions are related to an almost mystical element such as the sea, some superstitions linked to the land are equally surprising. A few years ago I was asked to give a lift to Co Galway to a young woman who was returning to her family after working in London. She had left home at 16, she said, because her brother beat her if she didn't work hard enough on the farm.
During the drive from Dublin I asked about the farm, and she said it consisted of five fields. Her father grew crops in four of the fields, but only used the fifth one for grazing, even though it was the best drained and sunniest. When I asked why, she said there was a "fairy ring in that field" and if her father disturbed it, "the priest would be after him".
The Irish Times wishes to clarify that the visit to the South of France referred to by Jim Dunne in An Irishman's Diary on Monday, 15th May was made over 20 years ago. This was not made clear in the article. The Irish Times expresses its regrets to the wine producers of the Midi region, the Irish wine trade and SOPEXA for any damage or embarrassment the article may have caused. The Irish Times further acknowledges that the wines referred to bear no relation to the wines currently available from the region, which are of a much higher quality than those described.