I'm certainly learning and it is interesting. I was thinking in terms of the curraghs I saw in the south and west of Ireland as possible means of fishing and getting between Scotland and Ireland. Yes, and understand many too poor to own even so small a boat. Ludie ----- Original Message ----- From: Edward Andrews To: 'Loudene Tollar' ; Scotch-Irish-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2005 6:50 PM Subject: RE: [Sc-Ir] Irish Sea Channel crossing Puffers are steam lighters. They were pretty well ubiquitous steam lighters which traded not only in the Scottish Islands but also to Ireland, especially the smaller harbours. The definitive thing about the puffers was their size. Less than (I think) 66 feet long so that they could pass through the Crinan Canal. Due to the Para Handy stories Puffers are much loved, but nearly extinct in Scotland. The sailing predecessor was a Gabbot. Under the Basalt which makes up the Antrim Plateau is Chalk. This is a form of Limestone and has a number of industrial uses. Unfortunately the Industries which used it have now mainly shut down. Someone was asking of there was red dust over the Antrim Plateau. Well no. The Antrim Plateau where the Iron is worked is a bog. However at the oxide ponds in Larne where the oar was dumped there use to be a lot of dust blown about. However in the 45 years since I lived in Larne things have been cleaned up and a dual carriage way road runs over the ponds. I think that you have a slightly distorted view of how people travelled. The very poor people would have hitched a lift on a cargo or fishing boat. To own your own boat meant real wealth. While we tell stories about people crossing the ditch - and people have swum it. People regularly rowed it to get the Church, I once had a hugely scary three days stick in the middle of the Firth of Clyde in a gale in a Yacht, while in 1953 the Stranrear Larne Ferry the Princess Victoria foundered in a gale with the loss of about 130 passengers. Edward Andrews -----Original Message----- From: Loudene Tollar [mailto:ludiekt@juno.com] Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2005 11:59 PM To: Scotch-Irish-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [Sc-Ir] Irish Sea Channel crossing I apparently created some confusion by mentioning my Kirks after asking the question. I was primarily just curious about the viability of travel between Scotland and Ireland at the place of shortest distance. Outside of the obvious sparsely settled area of Scotland I wondered if there was bad currents, etc that might have prevented it. Especially for small boats that presumably the average poor people would have had to use. And the knowledge that many people traveled to and from the two countries at will. A family history stated that our ancestor Kirk was born in Scotland and he is found in County Antrim, Ireland probably at least as early as 1750. I didn't mean to imply that I was thinking that route was how he came to be in Ireland though it could have been. I just wanted to have some knowledge of the area. And speaking of. What do you mean by the puffers (the steam ships?)? And what is the Limestone? I don't want to paint with a broad stroke when I say not many today in Texas (let's not even mention other southern states) that have much knowledge about Texas history much less early US history and even less about Ireland, Scotland and England. We're kind of late getting into it. So what may seem common information to many is Greek to me. And I do appreciate it. Ludie

While historically Curraghs have been used on the Irish Sea, for some reason they went out of use a long time ago. I've never seen anything except a "Wooden" boat in Northern Ireland Waters, though there are some Curraghs in Donegal. (By Wooden I also count fibreglass and metal.) Neither have I historically ever seen a picture of anything except a wooden boat. It may well be that this is a relic of the Norsemen. Presumably the skin and thin wood frame is a function of technology and availability of materials. Certainly a wooden boat is much longer lasting than a skin one. There has been a bit of a revival of them as historic vessels having been used in 1963 to go to Iona, and then in 1997 (I think) for the same trip. There was also the Brendan voyage to America. Hope that this helps Edward Andrews -----Original Message----- From: Loudene Tollar [mailto:ludiekt@juno.com] Sent: Friday, December 09, 2005 1:12 AM To: Edward Andrews; Scotch-Irish-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [Sc-Ir] Irish Sea Channel crossing I'm certainly learning and it is interesting. I was thinking in terms of the curraghs I saw in the south and west of Ireland as possible means of fishing and getting between Scotland and Ireland. Yes, and understand many too poor to own even so small a boat. Ludie