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The Ringsend Hobblers
By Larry Pullen 2003

The last of the Ringsend hobblers has gone to Fiddlers's Green,  Christy "German" Lawless died some years back, taking with him an important part of Dublin's maritime history. For 'German Lawless was the last of the Dublin hobblers.  

A hobbler was a tough breed of Dublin seafarer who used to row out to sea in flimsy craft to meet steamships and schooners. Then they would pilot the ship in, for which they earned two pounds old money or eight shillings for each man.

The first hobbling vessel to link up with a schooner or cargo vessel would usually win the right to discharge the cargo. This could take three or four day's work, for which the crew of four received between six and eight pounds. Most of the schooners would contain malt for the Guinness Brewery, sent from ports around Ireland.

The hobblers had to go out in all weathers in order to make a living, very often in stormy conditions. Many families were lost at sea, whole families devastated as the crews were often composed of brothers. The Shorthall brothers tragically drowned on the fifth of December 1934 . The Hughes brothers were killed when the schooner they were attending sliced their boat in half.

Hobbling in Dublin ceased in 1936, when the Port and Docks Board organized ship's brokers and shipping agents. The hobblers were banned. They are called boatmen now and they communicated with their shipping agent by telephone. The hobblers had their heyday in the inter-war years when "German" Lawless competed for business with other Ringsend notables such as "Highwater" Flanagan, a hobbler of such legendary scruffiness that he was often mistaken for a pirate by ship owners.

"German" would have competed with hobblers from Dun Laoghaire . Also there was a fierce rivalry between them. Indeed some hobblers still survive in Dun Laoghaire .

Often, two hobbling boats would converge on an incoming ship. A race d ensue. The square stern hobbling yawl from Ringsend, and the two­d open skiff from Dun Laoghaire were fairly evenly matched. In the t of a photo finish, the first crew to hook the incoming ship with a catching pole won out. It was a precarious living to say the least. Frequently Ringsend hobblers would venture as far away as Wicklow Head, only to ,:over to their disappointment that the ship had been claimed by another.

Among "German's" shipmates were some colourful characters with descriptive names like "Lockjaw" or "Wee Chucks", "Handspike" and  Bluenose". As for "German" Lawless, he was over 80 when he died, and along with the great tradition of hobbling, he took another secret to the grave with him no one could ever remember just why he was called "German"!

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Hobblers is a word fast becoming extinct in the English language, sea hobblers, that is. A hobbler being a person of uneven gait, but also a boat that rocks to and fro. Hobbling, although banned by the Dublin port and docks board in 1936 went on in Ringsend up until the middle of the 1940's, but even now in Ringsend it is becoming a lost sea term. 

The hobblers braved the most wicked of seas in their small boats with usually a crew of four. They rowed out as far as Arklow, to hook on their boat-hooks and claim the Schooners or Barques as their own. Theirs to pilot into the port, theirs to tie-up and discharge the cargo, and theirs to pilot out again into safe waters. This was probably the time that the lads in the hobbler got some idea from the Captain, when his ship would likely be due back again, and therefore give them an advantage over the other hobblers of the district.

It was not uncommon for a hobbler `to do a runner', meaning that when a ship was nearing the coastline, they would slip off their boots, and sneak out quietly by where the other hobblers lived, thereby getting a great head start. When the fishing smacks began their `mule races' they were the forerunners of yacht and tall ship racing. While the hobbler was the forerunner of the Regattas. 
Hobbling started it's decline when small engines were fitted to boats. 
Who can row faster than a boat fitted out with an engine? But even this bit of technology did not stop them completely. They would stay out in the Bay, with fishing nets over the sides, and as soon as a ship was spotted on the horizon, the race was on. 
Raise up nets quickly and step a mast into a makeshift shoe, with sail and oar they had as good a chance as any motorized boat, it was a hard and precarious life, and many a crew were lost, as were many fishermen.

Hobblers memorial in Ringsend Basin.

When the hobbler got her oar or boat-hook onto the ship first after a hard and long rowing match, that was only the start of it, it was not unknown for three oars to touch the ship within seconds of each other! Now that part was over with, the real work began. The crew's cox would embark and instruct the Captain where the sandbanks and other hazards were, the cox was only there to advise, as the Captain was always in command as is still the case today with modern pilots. The hobblers were everything, pilots, boatmen, dockers. 
Some of the many well known ships to use the last of the hobblers were the `Mary B. Mitchell',  Witzdermere', De Wadden', `The Gaelic' and the `Cymric'. These ships were chartered out to Guinness's, to import malt and tied up at Grand Canal Quay, or the cats and dogs, as it was known.

Grand Canal 

The ships had to go through the swing bridge, formerly known as Grand Canal bridge, Boland's Bridge, the Bascule, and most recently McMahon Bridge , this being known as the inner basin, it was always full of ships and barges. The barges would make their way right across the Country as far as Lough Corrib. 
The malt had to be bagged, and each six stone bag folded in a certain manner, four being hoisted ashore at a time, by the ship's sailors and loaded onto the train of waiting horse and drays, Even the terms used then have gone from today's sailors' vocabulary. For instance, the strop used to tie the bags was called a `snotter' or a `selfagee', and the small steam windlass a `dandy wink'.

It would take four dockers only up to 3 to 4 days to unload a ship the size of the `Mary B.' which was 500 tonne deadweight. One of the worst ­cargoes the dockers, hobblers and stevedores had to contend with was the coke which was discharged down at the E.S.B. 
This was a lethal cargo.
Before the dockers even went down the hold, they would cover their faces with any type of cream, and then on top of this, they would put their wives nylons over their heads, all to no avail, as most would have to make their way to the Eye and Ear hospital right after work, and still be back in the morning to repeat the same job, a hard life indeed!  

Larry Pullen

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