161 Years On From The Sinking Of The Edmond

Features - Feature Articles

Tuesday, 22 November 2011 15:57

Written by Mike Fanning

Last Saturday, 19 November, marks the 161st anniversary of one of County Clare’s worst maritime tragedies, the sinking of the Edmond passenger ship off the Clare coast with the loss of almost 100 lives.

The passenger ship, bound for Quebec and carrying 195 emigrants and 21 crew members, was wrecked during a storm after it hit the rocks under Skyke’s House, known today as Edmond Point.  It marked a bleak period for the Kilrush Union which itself had been racked by famine in emigration in the years preceding the tragedy.

The Edmond departed Carrigaholt on the morning of 18 November. Later that evening, it encountered a storm 30 miles out to sea and was blown back toward the Clare coast. The captain of ship attempted to steer the ship toward the Shannon Estuary but by Tuesday evening it had been driven into Kilkee Bay. The ship came aground on  the Duggema Rocks, at the mouth of the Bay, before eventually hitting the rocks under Syke’s House.

Local man Richard Russell, who was staying at Syke’s House at the time of the incident, told The Clare Journal: “What was my horror to see before me, within a few hundred yards a large vessel aground some distance from the rocks. It was low water; I cannot describe my feeling. I knew and felt that all in her were doomed to destruction and, as I then believed, not a soul would be saved.”

More than a hundred passengers and crew successfully managed to make it ashore thanks to the efforts of the local Coastguard and the quick thinking of the ship captain who ordered a mast to be cut to act as a bridge from the wrecked vessel to the rocks.

The Limerick Reporter carried a story about the tragedy on December 22, 1850. It stated: “When about 100 souls now safely ashore, the tide rose high that it was perfectly impossible to land any more of the passengers on the rock: so that they had only wait till either the tide receded or the storm subsided. But such was not permitted, as the tide rose the sea increased, and in a very short time the vessel broke up and parted midships. Several tried then to get on the rock, but were washed off at once; the remainder held on to the afterpart of the wreck, in which there could not be less than 50 souls”.

Among the 96 people who perished were natives of Kildysart, Tulla, Clondegad, Ennis and Barefield. The only crew member to die was ship carpenter John Finn, who drowned having earlier helped 15 people to safety. For weeks after the tragedy the bodies of victims were being washed ashore at Kilkee.

In January 1851, the Royal National Institute for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck awarded silver medals to three Coast Guard men who participated in the rescue efforts. A medal was also awarded to Richard Russell.

For more on The Edmond see www.clarelibrary.ie.