Erskine Childers (in oilskins) as arms landed from the 'Asgard' at Howth in 1914 Aboard Asgard at Howth pier, Molly Childers, Robert Erskine Childers and Irish Volunteers handling guns Asgard was Childers's last, and most famous, yacht: in June 1914 he used it to smuggle a cargo of 900 elderly but serviceable Mauser Model 1871 rifles and 29,000 black powder cartridges to the Irish Volunteers movement at the fishing village of Howth, County Dublin (later known as the "Howth gun-running"). It was acquired by the Irish government as a sail training vessel in 1961, stored on dry land in the yard of Kilmainham Gaol in 1979, and finally became a static exhibit at The National Museum of Ireland in 2012.