Historian hopeful of bringing 100ft ex-warship back to the heart of Carrickfergus as part of town revamp
A man who is trying to bring a 100-foot ex-warship back to the heart of Carrickfergus says that his plan remains alive despite it having vanished from the blueprints for the town.
Historian Christopher Kenny told the News Letter that while “all mention and appearances” of it have been removed from the most recent iteration of the town’s regeneration plan, he is hopeful a slot will still be kept aside somewhere close to the harbour for the 134-year-old ship Result.
The metal-clad ship is a schooner, meaning a mid-sized sailing vessel with at least two masts of the same size.
She was among the last major ships to be built in Carrickfergus, and ferried goods around the British Isles before seeing combat as a warship in WWI.
She was a “Q-ship” – supposedly-defenceless merchant vessels which were secretly heavily laden with weapons, and which were used to lure German submarines to the surface for an attack.
Result continued working as a commercial vessel until 1967, and three years later was bought by Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.
It is there she currently resides.
She is not on display; rather she is situated outside one of the main buildings and covered in tarpaulin.
The idea is to restore her three missing masts, and perhaps her sails too – though she will not float again.
A 58-page planning statement about the town’s council-led revamp published in July does not mention anything about Result.
But Mr Kenny, a director of the charity Result Carrickfergus Ltd, has since had meetings with the team behind the redevelopment and tells the News Letter: “With the redesign of the harbour area a space is to be left which would fit the Result should we be successful in our aims.”
He added: “The City Deal Regeneration Project did publicise this support on their website and in early concepts presented at public consultations show the proposed site for Result, however in the final version of their plans all mention and appearances have been removed.
“However the project team have assured us their final designs still include space for the Result to be sited by the harbour.”
He said other aspects of the revamp plans have also "fallen off” the agendag: namely, the reopening of the Gasworks Museum and the delapidated radar tower at the harbour mouth (neither of which are mentioned in the July planning statement).
Restoring Result and bringing her back to Carrick would cost about £2.5m, he estimates.
“She is of course a much smaller and simpler vessel than the likes of Nomadic and Caroline in Belfast, which had large sums spent on them,” said Mr Kenny.
“Even without any major council support our small team of volunteers is powering on to deliver the project ourselves in the hope the council are definitely still providing us a dry land site for the ship when its all done.”
Seamus Scallon, chairman of Result Carrickfergus Ltd, said Result right now is a mere “shadow of its former self”, while Carrick is “on its knees”.
Restoring the former could boost the latter, he believes, adding that his vision is for the ship to be sunk into a hollow in the ground between the harbour car park and the castle.
As for where the money will come from, he suggested the National Lottery, among other sources.
"It’ll have to come from a number of sources – and that’s what we’re busy at.
"We wouldn’t see it being from one source.”