Post by Administrator on Apr 11, 2016 10:48:04 GMT
The COLLISION of the `S.S CONNEMARA` and `S.S. RETRIEVER`.
Picture the awful conditions on entering Carlingford Lough,
A Collier named Retriever was heading for Newry dock,
Wild was that night in November she was pitching and taking a roll,
Sheering hard and sluggish, with a shifting cargo of coal.
Beyond the bar was a channel - a cut less than two cables wide,
Dodgy a place to be passing, in storm force squalls and the tide,
Because of the fear of U-Boats her lights were suitably dimmed,
As she battled to enter the channel pummelled by sea and the wind.
The S.S. Connemara, steaming out for Holyhead,
With little room for manoeuvre they discerned each other with dread,
Recently sailing from Greenore, she too with lights obscured,
With passengers including young women, and children also on board.
Her engine astern too late, the Retriever went on to collide,
The collier struck the steamer, her bow slicing open her side,
The Connemara - her boilers exploding, sank in quick disarray,
The Retriever with her bows stove in, sunk just fathoms away.
Loss of life was heavy, ninety three the score,
Counting up the cost next day where bodies washed ashore,
A graveyard in Kilkeel holds a memorial stone,
To recall this night of disaster when a single survivor went home.
`Atrocious Weather` the reason, one hundred years ago,
But `tis right to remind us all, and for people to know,
It`s not always a favourable tide whenever you sail from the quay,
Or conditions settled and peaceful when cast off and sailing the sea.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
On November the 3rd. 1916 a fateful collision occurred between the `S.S. Retriever`
(a Collier of 483 tons - with a cargo of coal from Garston and a crew of 9)
and the S.S.Connemara a twin screw steamer 272 ft long and 1100 tons gross.
In hurricane force winds, mountainous seas and an 8 knot tide at the entrance to Carlingford Lough.
Reports of lives lost were between 93 and 97.
Courtesy of Joe Earl