Battle-hardened and proud, the Jeanie Johnston replica Famine ship returned to her home port of Fenit, Co Kerry, yesterday after an epic eight-month voyage which saw her visit 24 ports and travel 12,000 miles of ocean.
The Jeanie, the recreation of a ship that never even lost a passenger at the height of the Famine, was one week ahead of schedule.
The winds spirited her across the north Atlantic, after setting out from St John's in Newfoundland on October 24th.
Around two-thirds of the return journey was completed under sail. She was brought into port by the harbour pilot, Mr Bob Goodwin,whose family have been pilots and sailors in Tralee Bay since the mid-1800s, the height of the sailing era.
The last four days had been some of the toughest, her master, Capt Tom McCarthy, said as he stepped onto the quayside yesterday.
There had been three force-10 storms and he had been three days on deck without break as the ship hit some of the biggest seas he had ever seen.
He was forced to turn her bow into 40ft swells in order not to be enveloped by hundreds of tonnes of water, he disclosed.
Many of the sail trainees had been "greenhorns" and safety precautions taken by the 20 trainees and 12 professionals on board were of paramount importance. "She is such a heavily-built ship, she rode it out beautifully," Capt McCarthy, former captain of the Asgard, said.
The ship, which cost €15 million to build, was visited by 100,000 people and had earned €1 million on the voyage from West Palm Beach in Florida to Quebec.
This was roughly the cost of the voyage, said Mr Denis Reen who has steered the ship's completion and plotted out the voyage since he agreed to act as chief executive for one year.
Capt Tom McCarthy and Mr Reen were "inspired choices", Mr Hugh Friel, managing director of Kerry Group and chairman of the Jeanie Johnston project said. Kerry Group brought together Kerry Co Council, Tralee Town Council, Shannon Development to form a special company, with input from the Department of the Marine, to rescue the project.
The future of the Jeanie Johnston most likely would have an all-Ireland dimension, one that had proved successful thus far.The ship would be used extensively in an "ambassadorial role" for about eight months a year, Mr Friel said.
It would almost certainly visit the US again, he added.
The next three months would see decisions on its future, Mr Reen said.
Watching the arrival of the Jeanie Johnston from the quayside were the originator of the project, Mr John Griffin, and Mr Henry Lyons, chairman of the project. The dream had been fulfilled, they both agreed.
"It has achieved everything it set out to achieve. It is a national treasure, a national resource," Mr Griffin said.
The project had been "a hard road but worth it", he added.
Mr Jim Callery, founder and director of the National Famine Museum, completed two legs of the voyage home.
"It would be a good thing if the Irish Government went over to Grosse Ile in Canada to see what the Canadian government is doing on behalf of Ireland to commemorate the Irish Famine," Mr Callery said as he stepped ashore yesterday.
RTÉ1 will screen a special edition of Nationwide at 7 p.m. this evening on the voyage.