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Holyhead Timeline

1579 ~ 2003

Holyhead in 1830

1579: Queen Elizabeth I, awarded £10 per lunar month to Richard White, her post-horse master at Beaumaris, for him to maintain a barque at Holyhead to convey packets of State papers to Dublin. The Holyhead to Ireland ferry has been maintained ever since.

1618: Capt Robert Pepper, was given £13. 6s 8d compensation for damage to his ferry (barque)

1631: Capt Langford had his ferry robbed by Arab pirates.

1649: Irish Royalist captured the post barque “Patrick”.

1650: Thomas Swift, became postmaster, and acquired the ownership of the packet boat, and he built a new Inn to house and feed travellers arriving at the port, the house survived until April 1941 when, it was destroyed by a German bomb.

1652: Thomas Swift complained that the Admiralty had seized the wreck of one of his ferries (barque) after it had been cast ashore.

1656: Pirates captured two ferries, and sent the two masters into Holyhead. Swift had to pay £50, to get his ships back!!!

1658: Thomas Swift extended Holyhead church belfry by 17 feet, to keep an eye out for marauders.

1660: A John Swift obtained the first Holyhead-Dublin packet contract under Charles II at a fee of £400 a year.

1670: 120 passengers lost their lives when the ferry (barque) sank.

1680: The first customs officer was appointed at Holyhead to control what was described as “great quantities of Irish cattle” being imported, his salary was £10 a year.

1689: The “Grace” one of Holyhead’s Ferries was captured by French privateers, while at anchor at Dublin Bay. She was completely stripped before her hull was sold back for fifty guineas (£52.50p)

1710: In September of that year two Holyhead Ferries, the “Ann” and the “Pembroke” disappeared without trace while making a crossing.

1760: The American, Capt John Macgregor Skinner was born. A statue to him dominates the Holyhead skyline.

1772: The number of ferries was increased to six.

1776: John Skinner lost his arm aboard H.M.S. Phoenix, and later lost an eye.

1780: Two Holyhead ferries the “Bessborough” and “Hillsborough” were captured by the American privateer “Black Prince”, £1,067 was paid in ransom to get them back.

1790: On the 18^th of December, the “Clermont” was wrecked at Salt Island, with the loss of 110 lives.

1802: In January Dutch galleon “Die Liebe” was wrecked at Penrhos beach. And the following month the Liverpool ship “Brothers” met a similar fate at the same spot.

1807: Three ships were wrecked inside Holyhead harbour.

1808; Holyhead beat Porthdinllaen by one vote in parliament, to become the packet station for Ireland.

1809: On 9^th February, the South Stack light was switched on for the first time.

1810: Sir John Rennie began converting the harbour, so that it could be used at all states of the tide.

1821: Two paddle steamers the “Lightning” and the “Meteor” entered service in June.

1826: Menai suspension bridge opened.

1829: Holyhead Lifeboat station opened on April 28^th.

1832: On October 13^th Capt John Skinner was swept overboard and drowned while bringing the “Escape” into Holyhead.

1841: A collision outside Holyhead between the barque “Governor Fenner” and the “SS Nottingham”, claimed the lives of 122.

1848: Construction begins on the Holyhead breakwater, it took 25 years to complete.

The First Cambria 1848

1848: Four new paddle steamers, “Banshee” “Caradoc” “Llewellyn” and the “St Columba” arrived at Holyhead.

1850: The first train crosses the Britannia Bridge.

1852: The “Town of Wexford” was wrecked off Holyhead.

1854: The Belfast barque “Penningham” bound for Liverpool from Rio de Janeiro, was wrecked on Salt Island.

1855: The “John Bannerman” was wrecked between the North and South Stacks, seven men were lost.

1857: The 18,917 ton SS Great Eastern, the largest ship in the world, called at Holyhead on her first voyage across the Atlantic.

1859: During the “Royal Charter” gales of October 25^th, cranes at the end of the unfinished breakwater were washed into the sea.

1861: The “Scotia” and the “Anglia” were sold and went to America.

1863: The “Telegraph” ran on the South Stack rocks in thick fog, fifty passengers were rescued, she was later re-floated and put back in service.

1875: In April the paddlers “Edith” and the “Duchess of Sutherland” collided off the end of the breakwater, the “Edith” sank with the loss of two of her crew.

1875: And in October the paddle ferry “Earl Spencer” 909 tons, collided and sank the wooden schooner “Merlin” near the breakwater.

1878: The “Edith” re-entered service after being re-floated.

1883: The steamer "Holyhead” and the barque “Alhambra” collided and both sank with the loss of 20 lives, 300 pigs and 17 horses, were also lost on the ferry. (Newspaper Clipping)

1884: The “Horatio” sank across the mouth of the inner harbour, temporarily blocking the port. The barque “Grigan” was wrecked on Peibio rocks. And the cattle steamer “Alexander” ran down the brig “Robert & Mary”. All this happened in one night, February 1^st !!!

1885: On 15^th January, the ferry “Admiral Moorsom” sank off Holyhead with the loss of five lives after a collision with the American ship “Santa Clara”.

1886: Three ships the “SS Avondale” “Dagmar” and the “Pegasus” sank at Holyhead on the night of December 9^th.

1887: January 4^th, two paddle ferries, the “Banshee” and the “Eleanor” ran aground at Holyhead the same day, the “Banshee” had 266 passengers on their way from Ireland.

1888: January 8^th, the “Earl Spencer” rammed the breakwater in dense fog, which left a big hole in her bow. 41 passengers had to be rescued.

1900: The paddle steamer “Eleanor” with 750 passengers on board collided with the “Connemara” 129 passengers, off the breakwater, no one was lost.

1910: The “Connemara” rammed and sank the “Marquis of Bute” off the Skerries.

1916: The “Connemara” was rammed and sank by the “Retriever” on 3^rd November, while on passage to Holyhead from Greenore, 82 lost.

1918: On March 20^th the “Slieve Bloom” was run down and sank by the American warship “Stockton” four miles off the South Stack. Here cargo of 370 cattle and 12 horses were lost.

1918: The “Leinster” was torpedoed and sank half way between Dublin and Holyhead, on October 10^th, 501 were lost.

1920: Four new ships the “Anglia” “Scotia” “Cambria” and the “Hibernia” entered service. The 3,467ton twin-screw “Anglia” became the Royal Mail Ship at Holyhead.

1922: The “Anglia” was seriously damaged, when she struck the breakwater.

The Cambria and Hibernia c 1930

1940: “Campina”, a 290ton naval patrol trawler stationed at Holyhead, struck a mine close to the New Harbour lighthouse, and sank on July 22^nd.

1949: Two new mail ships the “Cambria” and the “Hibernia” entered service.

1965: “Holyhead Ferry I”, arrives in July.

1970: Two new container vessels arrive the “Rhodri Mawr” and the “Brian Boroime”

1970: The Britannia railway bridge goes on fire, dark days for Holyhead.

1977: St Columba arrives at Holyhead on completion of her delivery voyage, April 5^th.

1981: A new Ro Ro vessel arrives in August, the St David.

1982: In the form of B+I Line, an Irish operator returns to Holyhead.

1984: Sealink UK Ltd was privatised in July.

1990: In January a fire broke out in St Columba's engine room on a sailing to Holyhead.

1995: In November a new freight service is introduced to Dublin with the Stena Traveller.

1996: The HSS Stena Explorer enters service on April 10^th.

2001: Irish Ferries introduces one of the world's largest car ferries, the Ulysses.

2003: The longest ferry on the Irish Sea, the 211 metres Stena Adventurer makes her debut on the Holyhead - Dublin service and replaces the chartered Stena Forwarder.

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