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Locals did well out of the M.V. Bolivar. My father’s share was enough for him to purchase his first sailing boat, a Sharpie dinghy. His own father got enough teak from the wreck to use as rafters for a new workshop.
Half a century later, when he was building clinker-built Water Wags for the fleet in Dun Laoghaire harbour, my
For one passenger in particular, Admiral Edward ‘Teddy’ Evans, it was not the first time the Irish had come to his rescue. As second-in-command to Captain Robert Falcon Scott on the latter’s expedition to the South Pole in 1912, he along with William Lashly and Co. Kerry’s Tom Crean were the last men to see Scott’s party of six men alive on the latter’s ill-fated trek to the Pole. On the retreat, Evans, suffering badly from scurvy, was saved from death by Crean, famously walking 35 miles on his own to get assistance, a feat which earned the Kerry man the Albert Medal.
Before the kish…
t might be hard to believe today, but once upon a time, Greystones harbour was considered something of an eyesore.
Shocking, we know.
But for one glorious spring, it was a princely piñata port of priceless prizes, thanks to the sinking of a cargo ship just up the coast.
The date was March 4th 1947, and Gary Paine has the titilating and tantalising details…
It was 75 years ago today that the M.V. Bolivar, en route from Liverpool to Dublin, sank during a snow storm when she struck the Kish Bank approximately 10.5kms east of Dalkey Island. As her aft and fore sections broke in two, her valuable cargo floated landwards. Probably not since the days when the Brandy Hole was in full operation had locals enjoyed such a boon from goods coming ashore along our stretch of coast.
M.V. Bolivar loads up…
Owned by the Norwegian shipping company, Fred Olsen, the M.V. Bolivar was a 5,230 ton, 440-foot long cargo vessel. On her maiden return voyage from Buenos Aires she was laden with 5,000 tons of grain, bales of leather, wooden caskets of olive oil and an assortment of other general cargo including timber for Liverpool and Dublin, never reaching the latter. On the afternoon of 4th March 1947, she grounded on the Kish Bank, breaking in two on the falling tide.
A ship’s lifeboat and a jolly boat from the M.V. Bolivar were washed up on the North Beach close to the Gap Bridge. They were rowed to Greystones harbour and hauled up the shore to await the Receiver of Wrecks to take possession of them.
Bolivar lifeboat & jolly on Greystones harbour
The war had ended less than two years earlier and the rationing of food and other essentials was still in place. When news that her cargo was coming ashore near the far end of the North Beach, many locals scoured the shoreline at night.
My late father, Derek, often spoke with fondness of the time when the M.V. Bolivar broke up. He would regularly go beachcombing, particularly after stormy weather, and in the ensuing days of early March 1947, as a 15-year-old lad, he and many of his pals and their fathers ventured along the beach each night.
With ropes around their waists and their fathers holding fast on the beach, they swam out to retrieve items of cargo, including wooden caskets of olive oil. Braving the cold, the real prize items were however the bales of leather hides which came in all colours and qualities, though they were difficult at night to identify in the kelp that covered much of the sea close to the shore near the Red Rocks.
Locals did well out of the M.V. Bolivar. My father’s share was enough for him to purchase his first sailing boat, a Sharpie dinghy. His own father got enough teak from the wreck to use as rafters for a new workshop. 
An uncle, Alec Thompson, who lived at Glencoe on the North Beach, upholstered an armchair in M.V. Bolivar leather which sat in the front room of the house for many years, facing out towards the spot where the ship had foundered.
Half a century later, when he was building clinker-built Water Wags for the fleet in Dun Laoghaire harbour, my 
father used leather from the Bolivar to protect the base of their masts.
For the M.V. Bolivar’s crew and 12 paying passengers, the episode ended well, with no loss of life, thanks to the plucky efforts of the Dun Laoghaire lifeboat and her crew, who performed an arduous rescue of all concerned in very challenging conditions. The crew and passengers were brought to the Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire where they were provided with hot drinks and refreshments.
Teddy Evans [left], Tom Crean [right]
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I have a leather handbag made by my Mother-in-law , Bridget Davis, Willow Grove from leather from the Bolivar boat.
She always called it her Bolivar bag!