Write a commentThis Thursday marks the 100th Anniversary of the collision of the Retriever and the Connemara in Carlingford Lough resulting in the death of 94 people with only one surviver, James Boyle from Warrenpoint.
Members of Newry Maritime Association have been instrumental in commemorating the centenary event, helping ensure that this dreadful tragedy on Newry's route to the sea is not forgotten.
Already this year the group have held many events throughout Newry, Mourne and Down and on Thursday they will hold two events, the first at Yewtree Park, River Street at 12 noon and the second at Dublin Bridge at 1pm. All are welcome.
Also on Thursday night at 7.30pm at Newry Museum, Maritime Historian Sean Patterson gives a lecture on the event entitled Connemara and Retriever Disaster: Wrong time wrong place.
Ninety four people lost their lives in what was one of the largest disasters to ever happen our region.
The Connemara had left her berth at Greenore bound for Hollyhead at 8pm on Friday the 3rd of November 1916 on what was a stormy night. An even greater disaster could have happened, only for war time restrictions on passenger numbers as the Connemara’s capacity was for many hundred more but on the night she had just 86 passengers and crew, as well as a consignment of livestock.
The Retriever had left Garston, Liverpool at 4am on the Friday morning with a crew of nine en route for Newry.
As the Frontier Sentinel of 11 November 1916 states “The disaster occurred just where Carlingford Lough opens out into the Irish Sea and well within sigh of the lights of Greenore Harbour.
“The ss Connemara, of the Greenore service went down instantly, carrying with her every human being on board, these being 51 passengers and 34 of a crew. The other, the ss Retriever, a collier, owned by the Clanrye Shipping Co., Newry, carried a crew of 8 men, and of these all met their death except a seaman named James Boyle, who belongs to Warrenpoint, who had a marvellous escape from the fate that so tragically overtook his shipmates. The disaster occurred at a spot only a few miles distant from the worst place on the County Down coast.
“The ss, Connemara left her berth at Greenore exactly at 8.20pm, having on board besides the passengers and crew a large number of cattle and sheep as well as a general cargo of hay etc. It was a wild night, but the Connemara was a fine and thoroughly seaworthy ship, and her captain and crew well used to rough weather. Of her passengers, a few were soldiers returning from leave; others were men connected with the cattle trade; and some were emigrants from Ulster and Connaught
“The Connemara had reached a point between the Haulbowline Lighthouse and the bar mouth at the moment that the Retriever, … laden, from Garston, was battling through mountainous seas for the somewhat narrow channel. The tide here has a tremendous rise - about 20 feet - and the hurricane had churned it into a fearful cauldron at the bar mount, making navigation difficult. It is conjectured that in the fearful buffeting of the wind and waves the Retriever became unmanageable, and perhaps had her steering gear injured; but those who could have thrown definite light upon this point have perished
“The watch at the lighthouse, observing that the two ships were getting perilously close sent up rockets as a warning and the next moment the crash came. For a minute the ships remained locked; then the Retriever swung wide, and immediately the Connemara , which had been terrible ripped from the bow on the port side to nearly amidships, lurched heavily. As she went down her boilers blew up, scattering human beings, cattle, sheep, and cargo in the surging waters.
The Retriever with her fore part staved in, remained afloat for a few minutes, filling fast as the sea poured into her. Then her boilers exploded, and she, too, wend down 200 yards from where the Connemara had sunk.
“The firing of the rocket alarmed residents along the coast from Cranfield to Kilkeel and presently it became known that something terrible had happened. Bands of watchers kept vigil throughout the long and terrible night in the hope that some survivers might be washed up on the shore. But for that vigil Boyle would have perished with the rest.”
