The Galway Hooker
Galway’s Signature upon the Water
Today, Galway City is a thriving modern
community, resplendent with all the cushions of modern
technology. Things, of course, where not always the
way they are today, and if we were to travel back in
time a few centuries, we would find Galway to be a very
different place.
It is easy to forget that in the time
before trains and cars, transportation was a much more
difficult affair. The quickest route for news, goods,
or people was often by water. Hence, Galway, like any
port town, drew its wealth from the sea; both from fishing
and from the extensive trade it carried on with France,
Spain, and the West Indies. None of this would have
been possible without the aid of a great fleet of ships,
the like of which is seldom seen today. It was one class
of vessel, though, that came to distinguish itself as
Galway’s signature upon the water. That craft was
the Galway Hooker.
These days, the Hookers appear annually
at celebrations, such as the Kinvara festival of Cruinniú
na mBád (Gathering of the Boats). A recent count
of the vessels showed 23 boats over 30ft to be riding
the waves. An astonishing accomplishment, considering
nearly all of the original Hookers had left the water
by 1975. The flowing, characteristic sails of the boats
are also captured in the stylised fountain at the top
of Eyre square, whose brown-red, rusty curves serve
to commemorate Galway's 500 years as a city and its
deep maritime heritage.
Like so many of Galway's icons, the real
history and evolution of the Hooker remains elusive,
and we remain heavily in debt to the likes of Richard
Scott, John Healion, Bill Crampton and others, who,
in recent years, raised the Hookers themselves from
near extinction.
The name Hooker almost certainly comes
to us from the Dutch; just which Dutch word it is, is
a matter of opinion. The term Hoeker is known to apply
to hook and line fishing, whereas both howker and holker
correspond to a small easily maneuverable vessel. Whatever
the truth may be, boats called Hookers also sail from
Holland to this day, although they are of different
make than those of Galway, and as these things are,
we should be happy to almost know where the term originated.
Where the distinctive design of the boats
originated is considerably less clear. Authorities on
the matter have claimed lineage from a host of different
traditions; Norse and Cornish designs prominent among
the speculations. This notwithstanding, basically everyone
is content to conclude that the boats, wherever their
ancestors sailed from, have been in Galway long enough
to evolve into something quite unique, and are rightly
thought of as Galway’s own creation.
The Galway Hookers are subdivided into
four types, with only the larger of the two commonly
invoking the name. The largest vessel, the Bád
Mór (pronounced 'Bawd More), is 35 to 44 feet
in length. The second largest, the Leath Bhád
(pronounced 'La Wawd'), or half-boat, has a hull length
of roughly 32 feet. The other two boats are the Gleoiteog
and the diminutive Púcán.
The boats are often noted for their strong
sharp bow and sides that curve outward like 'the breast-bone
of a water fowl', as Mary Banim once put it. The design,
built largely of oak, was sturdy, stable, and quick;
allowing fisherman from the Claddagh and Connemara to
navigate difficult passages, while hauling cargo (usually
fish) weighing upwards of 12 to 15 tons.
The Hookers were probably at their greatest
presence in the Bay in the years preceding the Great
Famine, when the Claddagh was at its height. Indeed,
several reports from the period verify that the Claddagh
fleet itself numbered at least 100 vessels; a number
which clearly distinguishes Galway as the West's centre
for boat building. Sadly, famine, depleted fishing stocks,
and the advent of modern technology would eventually
seal the Hooker’s fate as a working vessel.
The story of Galway and the sea is one
that goes back farther than the written word. Nevertheless,
it can easily be said that one of the greatest actors
to take the stage, in this maritime adventure, was the
Galway Hooker. In its time, the Hooker was like no other
craft, and its clever design was fitted purposely for
the subtleties of Galway's waters. Literally thousands
of lives were tied to these great ships in life and
in death, and as such, there could scarcely be a more
powerful emblem of this little village by the sea, that,
through the constant revisions of time, has become the
Galway of today.
Jeremy M. Usher
November 2000
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