The life and wonderful death of Sam Long, Lightship Master

 

I have to acknowledge Simon Veasey for getting in touch and asking if I knew anything about his great-grandfather, Samuel 'Sam' Long from Ballywalter, who had been on the lightships. I hadn't, but a little bit of research resurrected a very interesting life. 

A very Spanish Sam Long as a young man. Simon says this was in his Navy days. All photos of Sam Long courtesy Simon Veasey

Samuel James Long was born 21/2/1877, the son of Edward Long, who was a gardener at Newtownpark, one of the 'big houses' in Stillorgan. At aged 15, he enlisted in the Royal Navy as a 2nd Class Boy, when he was described as being 5ft 2 inches tall, brown hair, brown eyes and dots tattooed on each hand. He would rise (literally) to being 5ft 5 inches at age 18. He served on many ships during his 13 years in the navy and sailed the world, giving himself a thousand stories which he would relate later on in life.

A young Sam Long in the Royal Navy

In 1899, Samuel married Margaret Mates, whose father was also a gardener. He came out of service in the middle of the first decade and seems to have joined No.1.dredger in Kingstown harbour. Dredgers were kept busy on the east coast of Ireland as the whole shoreline is a mass of shifting, drifting sandbanks. 

He was very late going into the lightships, as he was 30 years old when he joined on 1st December 1907.  He was given the Lightship number 14 which indicates that the service number system operating in the lighthouse service wasn't quite the same as on the ships.
Poor Maggie Mates seems to have died of septicemia in 1910 and the two kids moved in with Samuel's sister Eleanor and her husband Henry Moore and their family. In 1913, Samuel was a fogsignalman on the Kish lightship at the entrance to Dublin bay. His fellow crew were N. Duffy, Master; M.Crowe, Mate; J. Day, Carpenter: J. Pluck, G. Warren, J. Langan, lamplighters; MB Wall, G. Connor, C.R.Easton, R.Roche, ABs.

The Kish 1908

A Protestant, Samuel doubtless stoked up a certain amount of controversy during WW1 by flying the Union flag from the window of his house in Kingstown. With all other lightship-

men, he would have received the Mercantile Marine medal and ribbon and the British medal ribbon, for service on the seas at the conclusion of hostilities with the Germans.

He married Jennie Thompson from Dunboyne in 1915 and had two children with her, William (1916) and Ethel (1918). Sadly Ethel died of pneumonia in May 1920. Her mother, Jennie, had died in the February of TB at their home in Northcote Terrace, Kingstown.

I have been unable to find where Sam served between 1913 and 1927, though being domiciled in Kingstown, he probably remained at the Kish or possibly North Arklow. He joined Skulmartin on promotion to Mate on April 1st 1927; joined South Rock on promotion to Master for one year only 1933 - 34 and then back to Skulmartin, where he finished off his career, retiring on his 60th birthday in 1937. In those last ten years, the lightvessels themselves were the Seagull and the Cormorant. According to Irish Lights, he was disciplined only once, for the dreadful crime of allowing a junior lamplighter to go ashore to get an infected tooth removed.

c.1905

One of Simon's female ancestors told a story of going out to the vessel in Skulmartin, probably in the late thirties. "She said she was eight or nine," he says, "and remembers this bunch of old guys and kids making loads of lace. Mum said the lace was then sold to dealers back in town to fund their end of tour session!! It figures, but she said she was always amazed that these rough, haggard old sea dogs could produce such beautiful work."

Family lore says he was a typical sailor with a woman in every port. This was probably in his Navy days as, naturally, there wouldn't be many different ports working on the lightships! He was always a great man for the baur, telling stories of his travels and adventures. In his retirement, he was the Vicar's churchwarden in Ballywalter. And he was also fond of a drink or two.

Sam with his third wife

Around Christmas 1958, Sam's third wife died and in mid-1959, Sam took one of his occasional holidays to Nuneaton in Warwickshire to see family. He was 82 years old at the time. On the trip over, he met up with some Navy lads and went on the mother of all sessions. Practically comatose, the lads put him on the train to Nuneaton, telling the guard to put him off there!

A couple of days later, he was in the middle of telling one of his humorous stories in the bar of the George Eliot Hotel in Nuneaton, when he had a huge heart attack and died instantly. The family story is that he simply 'switched off,' and didn't even spill his drink!

Way to go, Sam.