Waterville in  County Kerry has a more specific connection to Newfoundland. In the early 1900's Waterville and St. John's was connected by one of the underwater telegraph  cables that ran across the Atlantic. Just 15 mile north of the town is Valentia Island site of the first Telegraph cable that was brought over to Hearts Content, Newfoundland by the ship, the Great Eastern.

And now the town of Waterville has a connection to Port de Grave.  Known as the jewel on the  Ring of Kerry (a tourist trail), Waterville is home to some of Ireland's best scenery.  Rosemary Hill, a resident of Waterville and an outdoors person,  loves to walk the beaches of her home town and over the years have picked up small things such as  lobster tags on the sand that have come from Newfoundland. On March 09 2007 she came across the most unusual thing yet that she had ever found on  the beach. When she conferred with a local fisherman to what the object might be she was told that it was a 'danbuoy'. She had indeed found a fishing buoy that appears to have floated all the way from Newfoundland to Ireland!

Rosemary connected the buoy to Port de Grave from a small tag that was attached to it which read. "PETTENS MARINE PRODUCTS LTD, PORT DE GRAVE NF AOA 3JO. Other identifiable  markings  included a # 2 on the metal flange and a #7576 on the buoy itself.

How it got from Petten's Marine Products (pitcured here) to Waterville, Ireland, we would like to find out.

The Beach in Waterville, County Kerry where the fishing buoy was found.

Help us help Rosemary complete her story

Email   Portdegrave.com   or   Rosemary with any  information that you might have on the buoy.