Diocesan News
Memorial Service at St. Michael and All Angels, Waterville
On the 24th of November 1916 through driving rain and gale force winds an unknown ship entered Ballinskelligs Bay. All was not well. The Eliezer, a 119 ton, Danish three mast schooner had left the Canadian port of Miramichi on 16th October with a cargo of timber bound for Limerick, but now was far from her intended course. An Atlantic winter storm centred off southern Iceland had brought her to the coast of South Kerry. Despite the five man crew struggling to keep the ship afloat in the violent gale the efforts were in vain, and the ship capsized. Spilling some of her timber cargo into the bay the upturned Eliezer drifted towards the shore. Local man Batty O’Connell remembers his father telling the story. “It was a night of fierce gales; the timber was piled high on the deck making it top–heavy and caused the ship to capsize. Horses and carts came from all over South Kerry to collect timber. There was so much timber floating on the sea you could almost walk from Rineen to Ballinskelligs on the sea.” All five crewmen were drowned.
Earlier that year, at about 3 p.m. on 13th August 1916 four Iveragh men left Rineen Pier in Ballinskelligs Bay in a four oar boat. They were rowing to Waterville and intended to leave it there until next day when they would transport it by road to Cuas Crom Harbour, Cahersiveen, where it would be used for fishing. Their boat overturned in rough seas off Waterville. The men were seen from the shore and a young girl who worked in a bank in Waterville and who was a very strong swimmer had to be dissuaded from swimming out to their assistance because of the bad weather conditions. One of the crew tried to swim ashore with another on his back but a large wave hit them, which, according to the subsequent inquest, broke the swimmer’s spine. All four were drowned.
In more modern times, on 26 July 1989, Paddy Seán Fogarty of Murreagh went to the aid of his friend Fr. Willie Murphy who was in difficulty in a heavy swell in the water at the Inny Strand, Waterville. They both lost their lives.
Many others of various nationalities died in Ballinskelligs Bay and the nearby Lough Currane. The names of those who died in earlier centuries will never be known. However, while the names and details of their ships and accidents can sometimes be found in public records, the names of crew members were rarely recorded. Likewise, names and details of deaths not involving shipping were seldom recorded at the time.
It was therefore appropriate and a mark of respect that on a beautiful Autumn day, after visiting the remains of the wreckage at low tide, relatives of all those who died, including grandchildren and great–grandchildren from Denmark and Canada as well as locals, members of the Emergency Services plus the Mayors of both Kerry and the Eliezer‘s home town of Marstal attended a special ecumenical service in St Michael and all Angels, Waterville, ending with a visit to the newly–restored graves of the crew in the churchyard. A commemorative plaque was then unveiled at the waterside on the head of the Bay, where the Valentia Lifeboat and RIBs from the local inshore rescue were in attendance; the Shannon–based Coastguard helicopter added to the occasion with a fly past.
It would only be right to thank local historian Sheila Burns and others plus Heritage Iveragh/Oidhreacht Uíbh Ráthaigh for the work put in to make the day a fitting tribute to “Those who go down to the sea in ships, who ply their trade in great waters.”
Communications Officer, Tuam, Limerick & Killaloe
089 448 9353
Stephen Fletcher
[email protected]