The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1919-05-20
WAS SHIPS HAVEN
Tough SwiIIey Of Great Value to
Allied Fleets.
Deep-Water Inlet Formed Break in
Towering Rocks That Form the
Coast Line of North Donegal,
on the Irish Coast.

The destroyer guard is gone from
Tough Swilley. The Yankee ships no
longer round the grim black heights
of Knockalla. The hamlets Of Bun
crana and Letterkenny have settled
back into the undisturbed quiet of the
north Donegal peasant towns.
Before the war Tough Swilley was
little known to the outside world, OBJ
serves the Kansas City Times. Few
ships ever entered between the for
bidding walls of granite that rise ON
either side of the inlet But the war
made it haven for merchant ships,
a base for destroyers, and the only
home the wandering trawler fleet of
that section of the sea ever had.
The 'lough" is pronounced as
though spelled l-o-k-h. 1t is the Irish
cousin of the Scottish '1och," and
not far distant relative of the English
lake"
Sheer and sinister rise the cliffs Of
north Donegal. They form one of the
most forbidding coast lines anywhere
in the world. To the steamer tor
pedoed off this coast there was little
hope for there was no chance there to
beach a vessel. When the big $4,000
ton Flavia was hit off the Donegal
coast last August she stayed up three
hours, but was lost because she could
not limp the 30 miles or so to a spot
where there was a break in those
dark walls of stone.
Tough Swilley is such a break in
the towering rocks of the coast line.
1t is narrow inlet of water running
back into County Donegal some thirty
miles. And it is deep enough ell the
way for ships of heavy draught. 1t
was of incalculable value to the allied
fleets and merchant shipping during
the war, because it offered alike
haven and well-placed base for oper-
ations against the marauding subma-
rines that slipped around the coast OF
Scotland.
Past Bloody Foreland and Tory is
land, where the legendary Fomorian
pirates made their haven, swung the
conveys on their way to Londonderry,
Belfast and Glasgow. And there, too.
was favorite hunting ground Of the
U-boats. A seemingly perpetual mist
and thick rain hung over the sea there
abouts, periscopes were difficult to
glimpse, and the course of the mer-
chant squadrons was CONSTRUCTED and
easy to follow So it came to be that
many destroyers and trawlers gath
cred in the vicinity of Tough Swilley.
And Buncrana and Letterkenny form
ed an acquaintance with the outer
world.
They are tiny villages of matched
cottages, with white, high-steepled
church in each, and they are indescrib
ably behind in the march of the ages.
But they are proud of their history,
and the old patriarchs between puffs
of their dudheens will tell one that
the story of Donegal begins with Con-
all Noigiallach, the son of Mall Noig-
all himself And beyond that Irish his
tory fades away into the haze of time.
67,e4a Animals Sent Overseas.
In a statement made by the war de-
partment 1t appears that since the
United States entered the war and to
January II, 1919, this government
shipped overseas from this country
7.94S ~. nails, which incluf 5,4S9
cavali rnrses, 1896 draft J. rses, Is,
OSs drarr mules, and 975 pa mules.
The total number of animals lost en-
route overseas so far reported Is Geo
horses and mules, or less than per
cent of the total number Of animals
shipped.