About – Wicklow Maritime

The Wicklow Maritime Story

Wicklow Maritime is a personal hobby website that first went live on the World Wide Web on 1^st January 2003. From the outset, the aim was to create a photographic diary of maritime activity at Wicklow Port and to share it with fellow enthusiasts online.

In the early days, the site was a simple template-based webpage made up of a couple of pages. Photographs were taken on 35mm film, developed as prints, then scanned and converted to JPEG format before being uploaded. The website later moved to a free Eircom Homepage account, where Microsoft FrontPage was used to lay out and format the pages.

A significant step forward came in 2007 when the site moved to its own domain www.wicklowmaritime.com. Around this time, Adobe Dreamweaver replaced FrontPage software, it had a steep learning curve. Another key milestone followed in 2009 with the transition from 35mm film to digital DSLR photography. This change greatly simplified the workflow and improved image quality. As broadband internet became more widely available, slow dial‑up connections were finally phased out and consigned to history.

As Wicklow Maritime continued to evolve, new sections covering rail and aviation were added alongside the core maritime content. Today, the website is hosted by HostPapa in Canada — a company that has proved easy to deal with and offers excellent support. When it comes to WordPress, YouTube tutorials remain my go‑to resource for learning and troubleshooting.

Crew

Wicklow Maritime was created and is run by Tommy Dover, an amateur photographer with over forty plus years’ experience and a lifelong passion for all things maritime.

For many years, Max and Mitzi were the much‑loved mascots of Wicklow Maritime, accompanying us on countless walks around the harbour and its environs. Although sadly no longer with us, they remain fondly remembered and an enduring part of the Wicklow Maritime story.

Thank you for visiting Wicklow Maritime. I hope you enjoy the photographs and stories, and I invite you to follow and explore our social media pages for more maritime content and updates.