THE S.S. SLANEY 1898

Transferred from the Irish ships register in 1968, S.S.SLANEY is currently registered to Walter Scott & Middleton, 20 Victoria Street, London.. She was holed and beached close to the Northstone sandworks outside Toombebridge.

She is now lying, abaft of a overgrown cutting extending 400 meters into Lough Neagh. There are a number of wrecks fore and aft of her, most notably the Vartry lying aft. She is resting on the sandy shore with her bows above water by 50cm and a 15 degree port list. Inclined 8 degrees astern she is somewhat overgrown by scrubs and thickets making shore access difficult.

S.S. Slaney was converted to a sand barge upon arrival to Toombebridge in 1958, Her hold was extensively adapted to suit her new role and this steel work is still in place. Winches to facilitate her new role as a sand barge are still in place on her fore deck. The vessel was found to be in poor condition but with her added steel decking in place. The structural integrity of the ship is still sound and she lies on an even keel on the inclined sandy shore. The fresh water in the lake has s reserved the steel in many places. Similar to her sisters the hull plating indicated sufficient thickness for recovery and delivery purposes although much re-plating will be required in areas such as the turn of the bilge to bring the ship up to Department of Marine passenger ship standards.

It is possible that there will be a considerable amount of steel requiring replacement during her restoration, but that there is sufficient strength remaining in her framing so that restoration work should not interfere with her unique lines. Much of the riveted plating above the wind and water line could be retained and features such as her special steering controls will be restored. It was difficult to ascertain the extent of destruction to her original steel work by the refit. Only a full -out of water- ultrasonic thickness survey after recovery, will ascertain the exact condition of the ship and hence the extent of re-plating etc.