Oh my Gawd Ed as I live and breathe...The Princess Maud !!
Amazing stuff there about the oul favourite ( Im lying) Princess Maud. I thought I was the only living relic to remember it, but it seems there are others who have ventured forth on her and lived to tell the tale. The Irish Sea is not for the foolhardy - nosireee. I swear it has waves as big as Burlington House, as the prevailing atlantic winds whistle up that gap between Rosslare and the Welsh Coast and beat the livin daylights out of the Holyhead shipping line. So in an ideal world and in such circumstances, you need a sturdy vessel under yer quiverin legs.
Well you didnt get that with the Princess Maud. She pitched, she rolled, she lurched. One whiff of a sea breeze and the restaurant closed down, the chef took his chopper off for a dram or two...knowing full well that afore tooo long the poor buggers heading for the shamrock, would be puking with all the gusto of a force 8. Some would even try to abandon ship knowing they were probably better off clinging to a loiferaft in the raging briney.
After the nine hours usually passed... on what was scheduled as a three hour 45min crossing..the most welcoming sight in the world was the soft green rolling contours of the Dublin mountains rearing their head above the welcoming Dun Laoghaire harbour.
As the bedraggled passengers disembarked you could see the landlubbing dockworkers shake their heads in pity.