NEWRY, SHIPS,CANAL, bagenalscastle

Joseph Fisher a Kilkeel man and his Sons Ltd Newry,battled for years from a primitave start, to get a footing in the shipping world of Victoriana, they soon became one of the better-known cargo lines trading in coal across the Irish Sea. The red white and blue trimmed funnels became a filimiar sight througout the country. Like Kelly's they had many ships at the highlight of the coal boom In Ireland. These ships were spread across the north and traded where ever they found a plentiful supply and a full hold. My father dug many of these ships, he was called a trimmer, so called because such men as him self weilded great wide mouth pointed shovels which which were used to hone out the last lumps of coals into the the grab,or crane, which couldnt penetrate areas in the holds of the usually narrow built vessels. The lovely boats & the nostalga they brought with them lasted into the last decade of the nineteenth cent to about the first half of the twentieth century. I was one of the last people to venture into the remaining archived material in the abaondened & believed empty offices on the Quay of Newry. Newry and Mourne admit to the demolition of the once famous Albert Basin, the office of Fishers & the coal yard which I am at the moment painting, were demolished prior to the building of Quays Shopping Centre.A very poor swop In my mind. However I have managed to save a wee bit more of the Canals keep sakes than Newry and Mourne and hope you enjoy my efforts. For what its worth I was on many of these ships that came up the Canal my self by way of being a messenger boy for the crew and or actually sailing on them as part of the crew.