MV Plassy
{{Short description|Cargo ship wrecked off Inisheer, Island}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}}
{{Use Irish English|date=December 2017}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=On the Rocks, Inisheer, Aran Islands -2- - geograph.org.uk - 637547.jpg |Ship caption=Plassy aground, photographed in 1962 }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country= United Kingdom |Ship flag= {{shipboxflag|UK|naval}} |Ship class= {{sclass2|Shakespearian|trawler}} |Ship name=Juliet |Ship pennant=T 136 |Ship namesake=Juliet |Ship owner= |Ship operator= |Ship builder=Cook, Welton & Gemmell, Beverley |Ship yard number=669 |Ship laid down=23 May 1940 |Ship launched=2 October 1940 |Ship commissioned=20 Mar 1941 |Ship acquired= |Ship registry= |Ship renamed=
|Ship struck= |Ship honours= |Ship fate= converted to cargo vessel, sold 1947 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country = United Kingdom |Ship flag = {{shipboxflag|UK|civil}} |Ship type= coastal trading vessel |Ship name=Plassy (or Plassey) |Ship pennant= |Ship namesake = Plassey, County Limerick |Ship owner= Limerick Steamship Company |Ship operator= Roycroft Ltd |Ship builder= |Ship yard number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched= |Ship commissioned= |Ship acquired= 1951 |Ship registry= London |Ship renamed= |Ship struck= |Ship honours= |Ship fate=*Wrecked on 8 March 1960
|Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption=Robert Gardiner (ed. dir.), Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946, p. 66. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1980. |Ship class= |Ship displacement=545 tons |Ship length={{cvt|164.0|ft|1|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{cvt|27.8|ft|1|abbr=on}} |Ship draught={{cvt|11.0|ft|1|abbr=on}} |ship power= |Ship propulsion=*single screw
|Ship speed={{convert|12.25|kn|km/h}} |Ship range= |Ship complement= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=* 1 × QF 12-pounder 12 cwt naval gun gun
|Ship armour= |Ship notes= }} |
MV Plassy, or Plassey, was a cargo ship in the Irish Merchant Service, operating during the 1950s. It was built as HMS Juliet, a {{sclass2|Shakespearian|trawler|0}} 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 Plassy it 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. It was ordered on 12 December 1939 and laid down the following May. It was launched on 2 October 1940 and entered service with the Royal Navy on 20 March 1941 as a minesweeper.[https://www.valka.cz/MSA-HMS-Juliet-t24686#91618 HMS Juliet at valka.cz] (Czech) Juliet served in home waters until November 1942 when it took part in Operation Torch, the Allied landings in French North Africa.J Grehan, M Mace (2015) Operations in North Africa and the Middle East 1942-1944 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=2nc7CQAAQBAJ&dq=HM+Trawler+Juliet&pg=PT120 Encl. I, paras 35, 38]) Pen & Sword {{ISBN|9781473859463}} Thereafter it worked in the Mediterranean. At the end of the conflict Juliet was no longer required by the Royal Navy and in 1947 it was converted into a cargo vessel and sold into the British Merchant service as Peterjon.
As ''Plassy''
In 1951 it was acquired by the Limerick Steamship Company and renamed Plassy after the Plassey area near Limerick, which was in turn named after Robert Clive (Baron Plassey), who took his title from the 1757 Battle of Plassey, in India.{{Cite web|url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/battle-plassey|title=The Battle of Plassey | History Today|website=www.historytoday.com}} As Plassy (sometimes spelled Plassey)The Irish Times (Monday, June 23, 1958), page 8.The Irish Times (Friday, June 13, 1958), page 8. it 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,Caomhan Keanne (16 Mar 2014) [http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/scotch-on-the-rocks-30087314.html Scotch on the rocks], Irish Independent 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.{{cite news |url=http://www.independent.ie/national-news/old-friends-recall-how-they-saved-11-lives-from-the-deep-2091782.html |title=Old friends recall how they saved 11 lives from the deep |accessdate=22 March 2010 |date=8 March 2010|newspaper=Irish Independent}}
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.{{cite news|url=http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/islands-hit-hard-by-storms-now-waiting--255039.html|newspaper=Irish Examiner| first=Noel| last=Baker| date=13 January 2014| accessdate=17 January 2014 |title=Islands hit hard by storms now waiting for help}}Geraldine Gittens (6 January 2014) [http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/disappointment-for-father-ted-fans-as-the-storm-ravages-the-familiar-shipwreck-29892489.html Disappointment for father Ted fans as storm ravages the familiar wreck], Irish Independent
Gallery
Image:Shipwreck of MV Plassy on Inisheer 01.jpg|The wreck, July 1991
Image:Shipwreck of MV Plassy on Inisheer 04.jpg|The stern of the wreck, July 1991
Image:Wreck of the 'Plassy'. Inisheer - geograph.org.uk - 289299.jpg|The wreck, 2005
Image:Mv Plassy Shipwreck, June 2010.jpg|The wreck, June 2010
Image:Plassy shipwreck 2016.jpg|The wreck, June 2016
Image:MV Plassy, Inisheer.jpg|The wreck, October 2016
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Plassy (ship, 1941)}}
- [https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/6599.html HMS Juliet (T136) at uboat.net]
- {{cite web |url=http://www.geograph.ie/photo/637542 |title=Plassey On The Rocks, Inisheer, Aran Islands |accessdate=22 March 2010 |author= Harold Strong |publisher=geograph.ie}}
- Michael Kirwan (winter 2010) [https://web.archive.org/web/20111113135900/http://www.mariner.ie/history/articles/ships/m-v-plassy "The Last Voyage of the M.V. Plassy"]
- Robert Straughton (12 April 2016) [http://www.seabreezes.co.im/index.php/news/coastal-commentary/2102-the-plassey-story "The Plassey Story"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190827222145/http://www.seabreezes.co.im/index.php/news/coastal-commentary/2102-the-plassey-story |date=27 August 2019 }}
{{1960 shipwrecks}}
{{Shakespearian class trawler}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plassy}}
Category:Maritime incidents in 1960
Category:Merchant ships of the United Kingdom
Category:Ships built in England
Category:Ships sunk with no fatalities