It was supposed to sail here last summer. It did not. It was supposed to sail this summer. It will not. The sad saga that is the Jeanie Johnston has floundered once again with another season being lost, not so much to the elements as to the elementary.
The replica Famine-era sailing ship was supposed to have undergone sea trials in recent weeks with a view to a voyage this summer to the U.S. and Canada. But it seems that the ship is not even ready for testing, let alone a trip across the always tricky seas of the North Atlantic.
Meanwhile, the original anticipated cost of the project has soared from £2.5 million to a figure approaching £12 million. The project is sinking in red ink, never mind seawater. In defense of the Jeanie Johnston, it must be said that the idea behind the tour of U.S. and Canadian cities was essentially sound. The sight of the ship on the eastern horizon would indeed be a potent symbol in the eyes of millions of Irish Americans who have cast their minds back in recent years to the epic story that was the forced migration of their ancestors to the New World in the 1840s and ’50s.
The welcome for the Jeanie Johnston would indeed have been grand, and will yet be if the ship ever makes port here. But a mission such as the one presented to the Jeanie Johnston is no less important than the flight of an aircraft over the Atlantic on any given day. You have to begin from the position that, once the journey has started, failure is simply not an option. In that regard, it should at least be acknowledged that nobody involved with the ship was fool enough to pretend that the vessel was ready to leave port. Absolute caution was indeed warranted. But something approaching absolute competence in the preparation of the ship is equally required. Perhaps it will yet be a case of third time’s the charm for the Jeanie Johnston.