Linda e-mailed me a framed press cutting which hung on the wall of the pub with all the other nautical memorabilia. They did not, but set in motion an enquiry (special thanks to Florence Newman for this lead) which eventually took me to the iconic O’Sullivan’s Bar in Crookhaven run by Dermot and Linda O’Sullivan. Since Roaringwater Bay is one of the nearest landfalls for Trans-Atlantic sailors I felt they should know about Mary Harper. I then came across Roaringwater Journal written every week by Finola Finlay and Robert Harris. Turns out she did try in 1993, but had to abandon the trip: Latitude Magazine recorded her intentions (below) Eventually I tackled the search by looking for her as a person who sailed out of Nova Scotia and there I was in luck as it had been reported that Mary Harper had set out to cross the Atlantic but had to be rescued as she sustained fractured ribs in a storm but that was in 1993 and she told me it was in 1994. Strangely, I could find nothing out about her exploits on the Internet. I was not able to speak to Mary Harper again as we landed the next day, but resolved to research her voyage to Ireland when I got back to my home in the UK. Our conversation was interrupted by an almighty wave which shook the ship so I went below to check on Valerie, my wife, in our cabin, to find her injured.
When she arrived in Ireland, she was feted it was Regatta time and she was asked to present some of the prizes. She did not tell her family but left a letter with her solicitor to be opened 6 weeks after she set out, if she had not been heard from. She told that she had made the Trans-Atlantic crossing from Nova Scotia to Ireland, singlehanded, the previous year. We were experiencing waves of over 40ft at this time. She seemed to be the oldest passenger on board but had no difficulty making her way around the ship in the rough weather. That was where I spoke to Mary Harper as we both studied the ship’s chart of Cape Horn. We were not permitted to go out on deck but the ship operated an open-bridge policy. We experienced increasingly bad weather, encountering a force 12 gale as we rounded Cape Horn.
I was on a small Russian expedition ship, the Professor Multanovskiy. as I was crossing Drake Passage between Antarctica and South America, I met a lady with a strange story.
This is a Guest Post by our friend Brian O’Riordan, a native of Charleville, now residing in London
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