FERRYING CARGO FROM CARRICK TO CLONMEL BY YAWL

The yawl was a shallow draft vessel which could carry up to 16 tons of cargo in summer and up to 40 tons in winter when the river was high. A typical yawl was 60 feet long with a six-foot towing mast about one-third of the way back from the bow. They were towed by horses; one man led the horses while another steered the boat. Each horse had bunches of hay tucked under the winkers on the river-side to ensure that they did not see the water. The upstream journey took about five and a half hours. The boats drifted back down from Clonmel to Carrick with the current, two boatmen using poles to control them. The horses came back to Carrick by road .

The photo of the yawls is taken with permission from Andrew Doherty’s website https://tidesandtales.ie/the-lighters/

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