THE NITA IRON BOAT
“The Nita seems to be a very moderate and wholesome vessel”
After Ralph died in 1887, the Dopping-Hepenstal family fortunes continued to decline; and most of the estate was bought by its various tenants in the early 20th century; the house was sold off in 1929 and demolished in the 1930s to help build a church. With memories of the difficulties of the incoming
journey, with rumours of bridges having to be re-built and walls knocked down, it was perhaps inevitable that The Nita would languish in the lough. Ralph’s son, the last of the family to live at Derrycassen, gave her away when he left in 1923. She later changed hands for £7. In 1967, apparently derelict, she was erroneously identified as a possible dumb barge associated with the local iron ore mining, an industry roughly contemporary with her, starting in around 1866 and continuing for ten years. The iron used for the construction of The Nita could, theoretically, have come from mines on the doorstep of Lough Gowna itself. Possibly she was commissioned in part to promote and support this new local industry. It was impossible to sail her away and impractical to move her by road. She was stripped and later vandalised, and the rig, timber work of the decks and the interior all disappeared, along with such elements of the ironwork as could be prised or hammered off. Rather forlorn, she was something of a local landmark.
In 1989, it was decided that she could be a centrepiece for the regeneration of the area to encourage tourism, located on a prominent local roundabout. The plan, however, angered some local councillors, who associated the Hepenstal family with a notorious militia officer nicknamed the Walking Gallows, a subject of vilification for his alleged part in suppressing the 1798 Rising, and was abandoned. In stepped John Conlon, who had her towed to his yard, where she stayed until 2006. If The Nita’s life has been generally unlucky, it is hard to find fault with the boat itself. She was beautifully built to a very high standard, in a now largely forgotten yard in Dublin which appears to have been comparable in terms of build quality to anything in Europe at the time.
Walpole Bewley & Webb established the first large shipyard in Dublin. Webb was an experienced shipbuilder, having been apprenticed in northeast England, and Walpole had run White’s shipyard in Waterford, 1860-62. In 1863 they leased a site of eight acres of reclaimed ground on the North Wall, including a newly completed graving dock, 410 x 80ft. In their first year they built the remarkable fully rigged sailing ship Knight Commander of 1484 tons for the ‘Calcutta trade’ for Mr Ismay, who went on to own the White Star line. They were also credited as building two 96ft (29.2m) wooden lightships, one of which, the Shamrock in 1867, survived in commission until 1936.
MASTERY OF IRON
The mastery of iron as a material was widespread in Ireland in the 19th century. Thomas Grendon established a company in Drogheda in 1835 that supplied pretty well anything in iron, ranging from ships to bridges via farm implements and steam locomotives and even the Palm House at London’s Kew Gardens. While they lasted, these early yards produced some fine craft. To a modern eye, The Nita seems to be a very moderate and wholesome type of vessel compared to many of the period. There is nothing radical about the proportions or form, and she is well made to a sound design. Her designer does not get credit in any surviving lists, but it could be Thomas Smith MINA ‘of London & Dublin’, who wrote A Manual of Iron Shipbuilding in 1869. In 1869 Walpole Bewley & Webb built the Manila, a ‘saloon steamer’ to his design. He is the best candidate at the moment, though another possible contender is the John Bewley listed as designer of the Ranee, a steam yacht of 1877, who may have been ‘the’ Mr Bewley. The Nita’s length on deck is about 43ft 9in (13.3m)
now, possibly a fraction shorter than she would have been originally with a cap rail aft, and her beam is 11ft (3.4m), so her beam to overall length ratio is about 0.25, which is a good all round figure.
CLASSIC BOAT MARCH 2012 59
Far left: The Nita afloat in Lough Gowna Above: Ralph Dopping-
Hepenstal and his wife Annie
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