MV Plassy

Plassy aground, photographed in 1962
History
Ireland
Name	Plassy (or Plassey)
Owner	Limerick Steamship Company
Operator	Roycroft Ltd
Builder	Cook, Welton & Gemmell, Beverley
Yard number	669
Laid down	23 May 1940
Launched	2 October 1940
Commissioned	20 Mar 1941
Renamed	Launched as Juliet Renamed Peterjon in 1947 Renamed Plassy in 1951
Fate	Wrecked on 8 March 1960 53°3.3502′N 9°30.2175′W
General characteristics
Displacement	585 tons
Length	173.8 ft (53.0 m)
Beam	27.6 ft (8.4 m)
Draught	13.5 ft (4.1 m)
Propulsion	8-cylinder 2S.C.SA Diesel
Speed	12 knots (22 km/h)

MV Plassy, or Plassey, was was a cargo vessel in the Irish Merchant Service, operating during the 1950's. She was built as HMS Juliet, a Template:Sclass2- naval trawler of the Royal Navy at the start of the Second World War, and sold into merchant service at the end of the conflict. As Plassey she was wrecked in a storm off Inisheer, and is best known as the wreck seen on the foreshore of 'Craggy Island' in the TV comedy, Father Ted.

As Juliet

Juliet was built by Cook, Welton & Gemmell at Beverley, Yorkshire, at the beginning of World War II. She was ordered in/on 12 December 1939, and laid down the following May. She was launched on 2 October 1940 and entered service with the Royal Navy on 20 March 1941 as a minesweeper. Juliet served in home waters until November 1942 when she took part in Operation Torch, the Allied landings in French North Africa. Thereafter she worked in the Mediterranean. At the end of the conflict Juliet was no longer required by the Royal Navy and in 1947 she was converted to a cargo vessel and sold into the British Merchant service as Peterjon.

As Plassy

In 1951 she was acquired by the Limerick Steamship Company and renamed Plassy. As Plassy she operated around the coast of Ireland carrying general cargo until her loss in 1960.

Fate

On 8 March 1960, while sailing through Galway Bay carrying a cargo of whiskey, stained glass and yarn, it was caught in a severe storm and ran onto Finnis Rock, Inisheer, Aran Islands.

A group of local Islanders, the Inisheer Rocket Crew, rescued the entire crew from the stricken vessel using a breeches buoy — an event captured in a pictorial display at the National Maritime Museum in Dún Laoghaire.

Several weeks later, a second storm washed the ship off the rock and drove it ashore on the island.

The wreck today

The wreck still lies on the shoreline and is a tourist attraction. It is visible in the opening credits of the television series Father Ted. In early January 2014, Storm Christine shifted the wreck's position on the coast for the first time since 1991.

• 
  MV Plassy shipwreck, 2005
• 
  MV Plassy shipwreck, June 2010
• 
  MV Plassy shipwreck, June 2016
• 
  "Plassey" on Inisheer in October 2016

References

• "Old friends recall how they saved 11 lives from the deep". Irish Independent. 8 March 2010. Retrieved 22 March 2010.
• Harold Strong. "Plassey On The Rocks, Inisheer, Aran Islands". geograph.ie. Retrieved 22 March 2010.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/disappointment-for-father-ted-fans-as-the-storm-ravages-the-familiar-shipwreck-29892489.html

External links

• The Last Voyage of the M.V. Plassy