Shipwreck of the MV Plassey
22 September 2018
Back in 1960, a severe storm washed the freighter MV Plassey onto the rocks just off the coast of Inis Oirr. The crew were all rescued but the ship couldn’t be freed from the rocks. A couple weeks after the wreck, another storm came by and blew the ship up completely onto the rocky shoreline of the island, where it still sits today. We climbed over a field of stones and made our way to the coastline and the Plassey. The basic form of the ship still stands, but it has deteriorated heavily in the harsh island weather. Broken in pieces, with large holes and orange with rust, the ship is slowly wasting away on the rocks. It isn’t very often you get to actually walk to a shipwreck! Since this one had washed ashore the entire ship is there to be seen in all its decaying glory.
It doesn’t seem very safe to actually access the ship, as so much has wasted away and the parts that are left are fragile from decay. Too bad really, it would have been nice to explore inside. All around the ship among the rocks were gears, hardware, and other unidentifiable rusted out debris. The rocks surrounding the ship were all stained orange from the rust. It’s a shame in that the ship was destroyed in the storm, but it does make for some really pretty visuals today.
We circled the ship a bit, checking it out from all angles. Every time the wind blew you would hear the creaks of straining metal. We backed off a bit as the wind was heavy and the amount of debris scattered about is a reminder that parts do come falling off. I read that one of the items the ship was carrying when it wrecked was whiskey. Too bad a few of those aren’t still falling out!
From the ship you could look out over the fields and the walls that cover them, look down the coast toward the lighthouse that stands in the distance, or even look across the water to the Cliffs of Moher. By this point we had walked about half the diameter of the little island. The sun was making its way down, and we had no idea what was going to be open for dinner back in town, so we had to head back the way we came instead of completing the circle. We bid our farewell to the MV Plassey and made our way back through those winding roads to the town.
