Slieve League
Outward from Dublin, the Slieve League. © Bobby Sinclair
The
Slieve League arrived
in Holyhead in 1935. Space onboard was provided for 642 head of cattle
and 14 horses. There were also 46 temporary horse stalls and 22 sheep
pens on the outside decks. All told there was space for up to 114
crane-loaded trade cars, but as far as cargo was concerned any type
offered could be stowed in the hold.
Usually passengers were not carried on the cargo ships but the exception to this rule was from Dublin on Thursdays, the day of the cattle market, when drovers accompanying herds or horses’ grooms were catered for. Generally it was the midday departure from the Irish port that was graced by the kings of the cattle-market. On that day the cook and steward would produce a three course luncheon after the best tradition of the English market town hotel. At Holyhead a special train met the ship with the head stationmaster in attendance, and the head porter of the Station Hotel ready to take orders for refreshments. Within five minutes the train would be gone, complete with the great men of the trade and the tea-baskets they had requisitioned.
Start of passage for the Slieve League in Dublin Bay. © Bobby Sinclair
When the closed railway container era arrived each box was categorised. The forerunners of the ISO containers, some were FM and others were B and BD containers, these usually containing furniture and general household items, another regular cargo which, before the modernisation of port installations, was loaded onboard by hydraulic cranes which former Holyhead master Capt John Bakewell remembers as being “Really ancient!”
Agricultural
implements such as ploughs and harrows were shipped in such high numbers
that the ship’s officers were convinced they carried more than Ireland
ever needed! But perhaps amongst the most unusual cargoes carried were
coins! Before decimalisation, Irish coinage was freely accepted in
Holyhead and periodically the local banks would empty their coffers and
ship the coins back to Ireland in stout unmarked wooden boxes!
Even live frogs were carried eastbound (en route to laboratories)
and there is a wonderful story of passengers sitting on the early
morning train out of Holyhead with escapee frogs hopping along the
corridor!
The Slieve Bloom was the first of the quartet to see withdrawal and in 1965 she and the Slieve More were sold to Van Heyghen Freres for breaking up in Belgium. The Slieve League followed her two sisters to Belgian breakers in February 1967, being towed there after sale for £14,000.