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BRIGANTINE "ASGARD
II", ALBERT BASIN, NEWRY (19th MARCH
1999)
The Newry Ship
Canal, in its present form, was opened
in April 1850 in an attempt to enable
the town to increase its ship-handling
capacity. The original ship canal completed
in 1769 and entered via the Fortescue
Lock was lengthened and deepened as far
as Lower Fathom, where a new sea lock
the Victoria Lock, was constructed, capable
of accommodating vessels up to 205' in
length. The harbour area was vastly increased
by the building of a huge floating dock,
the Albert Basin, the second biggest of
its kind in Europe. The "basin"
as it was known locally was adjacent to
the centre of the town.
At this period substantial
emigrant vessels were sailing from Warrenpoint
with passengers fleeing the hardships
of the Great Irish Famine. Many of these
vessels were both registered in Newry
and operated by Newry ship owners. Foremost
among these was Francis Carville, who
decided to sail his vessel "New Zealand"
from Newry to Quebec at the end of April
1850. Passengers were to embark in the
Albert Basin. However the limitations
of the new waterway soon became very apparent
when Carville announced in the "Newry
Telegraph" that his ship would instead
be sailing from Warrenpoint because of
the Newry Canal not being large enough
for a "ship of this burthen."
From its inception the new canal could
not accommodate large or even moderately
sized ocean-going vessels. This was to
become even more apparent in the last
quarter of the nineteenth century as the
dimensions of merchant ships accelerated
dramatically.
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