Dinner: Meat (beef or pork), vegetables and potatoes.
Tea: Similar to breakfast.
Work on the schooner began at 6 o'clock when in port and could continue until 9 at night. The breakfast break lasted from 8.30 to 9.00 and dinner from 1.00 to 2.00. The main task of the day was the unloading of cargo. This was usually done with a hand winch. Coal was the most common cargo and it took about two and a half days to unload 160 tons in this way, thus giving the sailors two nights at home.
When the ship was empty and was to sail light (i.e. without an outbound cargo), it had to be ballasted. To carry out this operation the ship anchored at the Ballast Bank. A small boat carried a rope to that man-made island and secured the bow. The vessel was then hand winched towards the Ballast Bank and made fast (secured). The ballast men then wheeled approximately 20 tons of sand on board and trimmed the ship to balance properly, without any listing. The sand for ballast came from up the Slaney in big open boats called gabbards. The ship then waited for the tide in order to clear the bar.
If the weather prevented sailing, the men worked the usual hours, painting, cleaning and making and mending nets. In the more difficult times, crews would be paid off at the end of a voyage and only resigned when the ship was ready to sail. In bad winter weather that could mean weeks without pay.
In the hey-day of the port vessels were lined three deep for the length of the quays and outbound ships were grouped at anchor off the Dockyard waiting for the tide or the weather to clear. In fair weather they sailed down the harbour, otherwise they were towed, often three at a time, by the tugboat.
Except in extremely favourable conditions, all ships had to be towed over the sandbar both leaving and entering port.
At that time there was a pilot station at the Fort in Rosslare as well as a customs station. The pilots from Rosslare would meet all incoming ships and sail on board them to the Bar where the Customs Officers boarded and searched if necessary. The Harbour Board tug then brought the vessel over the Bar and up the channel to the quay. The pilots boat from Rosslare followed and returned the pilots to the Fort. Most of the Rosslare pilots were Wexfordmen.
On the outward trips, Harbour Pilots, usually retired sailors, guided the ships down the channel to the Bar where they were taken off by the tugboat or Fort pilot boat and quite often they walked the 7 miles back to town along the edge of the harbour. Only the Fort Pilot could bring ships up the channel.
In the boom time of Wexford Port there was relatively little unemployment in the town. The sea trade spawned numerous other enterprises from home based flax twine-making to the shipwrights of the dockyards. Wexford was virtually self sufficient in those days. Flax was grown on the South Slobs and given to women to spin in their own homes into twine for establishments such as Hugh McGuire's ships chandlers shop. In a loft over his shop on the quay six or more men were employed making sails for the Wexford fleet.
Wexford barques carried timber from St. John's Newfoundland for the shipbuilders of the dockyards were shipwrights turned rough 80-foot logs of pitch pine into masts. Also in the dockyards were the Block makers, who fashioned the pulley blocks for the ropes, the nickname 'Blocks' was often given to those involved in this trade.
Others involved in the trade of the port were coal porters who discharged cargos, sailors in the gabbards who transhipped goods on upriver to Enniscorthy and other villages as well as bringing sand for the ballast.
In those years Wexford was very much a maritime town with those not directly involved in seafaring, using the port as a gateway to export their produce. Before the advent of the railway in Wexford, travel by sea was the most convenient way to visit places like Dublin and many Wexford people would have been better acquainted with Bristol than with other Irish towns.
Some interesting aspects of Wexford in the 1840s include;
Church Lane was a narrow built up area leading onto Wigram Quay.
There was a Shambles of 30 stalls located behind the present day General Post Office.
This was a meat market.
The Custom House was in Anne Street, (over the years this has been located here, at the Crescent and at Charlotte Street).
There was a racquet ball court also in Anne Street.
Cullimore Lane exited onto the quay from what was later called Dunne’s Car Park, as it still does today, without title.
The Steam Packet yard was located opposite today’s Talbot Hotel.
A reservoir was located to the north east of St. Mary’s Churchyard. This was probably owned by the Quay Corporation to supply piped water to the ships.
Industries in Wexford in 1856 included a distillery at Bishopswater, two extensive steam mills manufacturing flour, oat and Indian corn meal and also malt. In fact in 1831, 38 Wexford malt houses produced almost 80,000 barrels of malt, mostly for export to Dublin. The town had 3 breweries, 4 tan-yards, 3 ropewalks, 3 soap and candle manufacturers, 1 tobacco factory and 1 foundry. A glance at this list will serve to emphasise the value of Wexford Port at that period.
Although there was little foreign (British was not a foreign land at that time) export trade, imports included timbers from the Baltic and British America (Canada) and wheat and Indian corn from the Black Sea.
The exports to Britain were grain, flour, oatmeal, malt, salmon, cattle, pigs, poultry, eggs and oysters.
Their value in 1835 was put at £312,136. The principal imports from Britain were coal, slates, bricks, iron, tea, sugar, coffee, rice, brandy, wine, tobacco and hides, valued at £627,417 in 1835.
The fishing industry at the time was employing 2,059
