Tom McSweeney: New survey ship should be sailing by the spring of 2026

At the age of 28, back in 1957, Finbarr Ronayne founded a shipping company in Cork.

Ronayne Shipping had a focus on the importation of chocolate crumb.

Many years ago I remember hearing that story told during a debate about Cork’s shipping connections.

From Ronayne Shipping came Irish Mainport Holdings, providing a wide, diverse range of shipping services from its headquarter base at Monahan Road in the city, a location where I was told about its work in far-flung places - South America, the Middle East, Africa, Malaysia and within the European Union area.

Its newest development is the signing of a long- term charter with N-Sea Group for provision of a new hybrid survey ship. N-Sea are based in Dordrecht in the Netherlands.

“We also signed a new build contract with Neptune Construction also based in the Netherlands to construct this new 40 metre survey ship,” Captain Damien O’Sullivan, marine operations manager at Mainport, told me.

“Construction period should take around 12 months.

“It will be a pleasant change for our technical team to oversee a new construction in Europe, as our previous new builds were in the Far East.

“This new ship is based on the proven design of the ship Geo Ranger which is currently owned and operated by N–Sea.

“Mainport look forward to operating this new ship for N-Sea.

“It will have a crew of seven, a Konsberg DP system, fitted with a Moonpool and A Frame, designed as a Hybrid Survey Vessel/ROV (remote) support vessel.

“Total accommodation is for 21 persons which includes our seven crew and 14 survey personnel.

“We are hoping for keel laying the end of this year, start of 2025. Building will be at the Neptune Shipyard in the Netherlands.

“All going well it will be delivered in Quarter 1 of 2026.”

So Cork continues to make impact in the international maritime sector.

PENROSE QUAY

While the city quays are no longer a major shipping location, their maritime history is an important part of Leeside which should be more known by the present generation.

Cork city grew from trade prosperity through shipping.

An online brochure (https://www.penrosedock.com/history) about the history of Penrose Quay and dock area and what is now called the city’s Victorian Quarter has been published by JCD property development company.

The area was reclaimed from marshland in the early 1800s and became the city’s major shipping location with trade to the UK.

The brochure has a wealth of old shipping photos of Cork and describes the founding of the original St George Steam Packet Company whose first two steamers were ‘The Lee’ which operated between Cork and Liverpool and ‘The Severn’ for a busy trade with Bristol.

It later became the Cork Steamship Company whose first vessel was Nimrod. In 1903 it had 16 vessels.

TIMBER

A new berth for loading timber logs has begun operations at Tivoli Docks.

BLUEFIN TUNA

Following last week’s piece about Irish fishermen not being allowed by the EU to catch Bluefin Tuna which are increasingly being found in Irish waters, John Shine, a longtime contact who runs Shines Wild Irish Tuna brand has described the situation as immoral.

“Irish fisherman have no choice but to dump top quality bluefin tuna at sea because our government won’t ask the European Union for a share of the 30,000 annual quota.

“Irish waters are full of bluefin tuna.

“Stocks are so strong the quota for EU boats has been increased by 70% over the past five years.

“Dumping dead top quality high-value fish at sea is immoral and soul-destroying.

“Each fish is worth over €1,500 and could be worth as much as €10,000,” he says.

OFFSHORE WINDDEVELOPMENT ANDMARITIME CONCERNS

Is the Government rushing ahead with offshore wind development, while overlooking maritime concerns?

The Department of the Environment (DECC) has published data to support developers involved in Ireland’s second offshore wind energy (ORE) auction for areas off Cork, Waterford and Wexford.

The Marine Institute’s Tom Crean gathered the data between July and September.

While there is general agreement about the importance of ORE the fishing industry, coastal communities and other interested parties have expressed concern that the project is being rushed.

Reports from UK say that existing wind farms can be deadly to birds, a threat to cetaceans and the cause of destabilised phytoplankton levels, which has consequences for marine ecosystems generally.

The Swedish Government has stopped thirteen offshore wind energy developments in the Baltic Sea because, it was told by the Swedish Armed Forces, that “sea-based wind power makes it more difficult to defend Sweden.”

More on this topic on my podcast website: https://tommacsweeneymaritimepodcast.ie

Email: tommacsweeneymarine@gmail.com.