Memorial service to mark 130th anniversary of Mayo drowning tragedy

THE Achill Island/Clew Bay drowning tragedy of 1894 is being remembered this week.

On Friday, June 14, the 130th anniversary of the accident, there will be a memorial prayer service and wreath-laying ceremony in memory of the 32 victims at 5.30 p.m. at the Point on Westport Quay, and then proceeding to the monument beside the pond at the Quay.

This will be followed by a gathering for light refreshments at The Towers.

Earlier in the day there will be a talk given by Padraig McLoughlin at 12 noon in Westport Library. There will also be an exhibition at the library.

All are welcome.

FROM THE ARCHIVES - 'APPALLING DISASTER'

By Tom Gillespie

Part 1

ONE-hundred-and-thirty years ago this month - June 16, 1894 - The Connaught Telegraph reported on the ‘appalling disaster’ in Westport Bay when 32 Achill harvesters were drowned.

The newspaper reported as follows: One of the most appalling disasters ever recorded in the west of Ireland occurred in Clew Bay, off Annagh Head, on Thursday, June 16, last, when a hooker (The Victory) from Achill, so closely packed with islanders, young and old of both sexes, as to be almost overladen, capsized in the bay, and the greatest part of those on board were drowned.

The alarming news reached Westport about half-past twelve o’clock. It was at first discredited, but on the arrival of a large number of islanders who had come by other hookers, and who had, many of them, witnessed the occurrence, soon gave ample confirmation of the dreadful catastrophe and the overwhelming loss of human life that it occasioned.

The earlier reports set down the number of those who had perished at 60, and it is needless to say that when this announcement spread, which it did rapidly, the town was thrown into a state of the most intense and painful excitement.

Crowds hurried to the quay anxious to obtain all possible information of the disaster, only to find when they reached there, at intervals, boat after boat bringing up the bodies of those who had been recovered. Language failed utterly to picture the almost indescribable horror of the scene.

Tenderly and carefully the bodies were removed from the boats to the slip near the Demesne, and there deposited for the time being.

It was harrowing in the extreme to see the stalwart forms of the men in the full noontide of their strength and vigour borne ashore, their limbs not yet quite rigid in death, in some cases having white foam visible around the mouth, and bearing the indications of a fierce struggle for life before the remorseless waves closed over them.

Inside an hour and half from the time of the occurrence - a little before 12 o’clock - 18 bodies were recovered, a considerable number of them being women - some young, and a few advanced in years.

These that were first recovered were removed to one of the stores adjacent to the police barracks, but as others arrived it was found that it did not afford sufficient accommodation for all, and the store adjoining had to be forced open, where one half of the bodies were placed.

It was a gruesome spectacle, and one not likely to fade from the minds of those who witnessed it as they were laid side-by-side, light shawls coverings thrown over their faces. The horror awakened in the awe-stricken minds of the crowd who looked on in profound sorrow at the ghastly proceedings which were being enacted before them was intensified by the uncertainty regarding the number of lives that had been sacrificed.

It was variously estimated at from 20 to 60, but in addition to having the remains of so many deposited in its stores, was impossible to form any correct idea of the number of those who had gone down in the hooker, and whose bodies could not be recovered until he tide had receded and made access to the boat a matter of less difficulty.

All that seemed to be known at the times that there was a good many in the hold and forecastle when she toppled over and it was stated that only one man made his escape therefrom.

Nothing could be more affecting than the scene that occurred on the quay while the boats were bringing up the bodies.

It was heartrending in the extreme, and callous, indeed, would be the heart that would not be moved by the anguish of those islanders whose friends had been drowned with the hooker.

Most of those who came from Achill that morning remained walking about the quay watching intently the incoming boats, and those of them, as we have said, who had friends on the hooker were weeping and ringing their hands disconsolately.

The earlier details of the catastrophe were not very reliable, and it was only after some time had elapsed that any definite information could be obtained as to its origin.

The first wild rumour was that the hooker had been overturned by the cable of one of the Glasgow steamers which had taken the ground near the place the previous evening.

It soon transpired, however, that there was no foundation whatsoever for that statement, and that the terrible fatality was in no way due to such a cause.

In fact had it not been for the steamer, the loss of life appalling as it is would be even greater still, as her boats, which were immediately lowered, rendered very timely service in rescuing some of those who would otherwise have perished with the ill-fated hooker.

As far as could be ascertained in the excitement and confusion of the occasion, it appears that the hooker which was in the charge of two men named Pat and John Healy, left Achill that morning with, for the size of the boat, a very large number of people, bound for the harvest fields of England and Scotland.

All went well with them, there being little more that what might be termed a good sailing breeze, until they reached Annagh Head which is well within view of the point of the Quay. Approaching the steamer the S.S. Elm, which was awaiting the tide to take her up to berth, the crowd on the deck of the hooker exchanged salutations with those on board the steamer and were shouting and laughing.

According to the statement of Pat Healy, he told them repeatedly to sit down but it was no use: they crowded on the deck. It became necessary to change the sail to take a turn in the channel, but there were too many on deck, and the boat being top heavy the consequence was that the moment the sail came down the hooker toppled over.

Part 2 in next week's print edition and online