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Hundred-year-old Manx boat reborn

Image courtesy of Manx National Heritage / the iMuseum

Iconic vessel restored and launched

An iconic part of Manx maritime history has been brought back to life.

The 'Aigh Vie' might, to the untrained eye, look to be indistinguishable from other fishing vessels - but its past is far from ordinary.

In 1915, the 'Lusitania' luxury transatlantic liner ship was sunk, near the Old Head of Kinsale in Ireland, by the torpedoes of a German submarine.

The closest vessel was the 'Wanderer', a fishing boat from Peel in the Isle of Man - skipper William Ball and his crew attended the incident, and is said to have saved many lives at the scene.

Some time later, Mr Ball received a substantial sum of money directly into his bank account in Peel, from an anonymous source in America - the only stipulation was that he was to use the funds to design and construct 'the vessel of his dreams'.

What resulted in late 1916 was the 'Aigh Vie', which means 'good luck' in Manx Gaelic.

Over 100 years later, and after a considerable period of painstaking toil from one private individual, the vessel has burst into action once more.

Paddy Murphy, who lives in Renvyle, launched the restored boat into the Atlantic Sea after spending the past two decades re-building it as a personal project - effectively from his shed.

Work is by no means complete, and there is still lots of restoration work to be done to restore 'Aigh Vie' to her former island-hopping glory.

To this day, the source of the lump sum from America in appreciation of William Ball's efforts remains unknown.

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