Allegory of the MV Alta
‘Unnamed 1’ Oil on canvas, 120 x 120cm, 2023
Majella’s current body of work imagines the journey of the MV Alta, a merchant vessel which was abandoned at sea, 1,400 miles south-east of Bermuda in October 2018 after suffering main engine failure, and washed ashore at Ballycotton, Co. Cork during Storm Dennis in February 2020, where her wreckage remains.
This is a photograph of the ship itself, MV Alta at Ballycotton, taken by Mary Sullivan.
The mysterious vessel is a modern-day ghost ship having been abandoned by its 10 person crew while en route from Greece to Haiti. The Alta drifted for 496 days over a distance of 2,300 nautical miles before running aground in Ballyandreen Bay. The vessel’s exact position and distance travelled during this time is unknown and unrecorded and can only be estimated. Despite exhaustive enquiries by Irish authorities, the MV Alta’s owners have never been found. The vessel, unclaimed, un-salvaged, is slowly being broken apart off the cliffs through the action of the wind and waves. Majella’s paintings capture the plight of the ship, evoking moments of that time adrift at the mercy of the sea, before being washed ashore to be broken on the rocky Irish coast.
‘Unnamed 2’ oil on canvas, 70 x 100cm, 2023
"Living near the ocean and with the wreck coming ashore so close to home, the story resonated profoundly with me. Like many things in life, you never know what will wash up on your shore"
- Majella O’Neill Collins