Harbour History
BAY SHIPWRECKS REMEMBERED
IF YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE WHO SIT SNUGLY IN BERTH BEHIND DUN LAOGHAIRE'S SAFE HARBOUR WALLS, YOU SHOULD SPARE A THOUGHT FOR THOSE WHO PERISHED 200 YEARS AGO.
Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council organised a commemoration ceremony at the Martello Tower in Seapoint on November 19 last to mark the 200th anniversary of the loss of 400 lives when the Prince of Wales and Rochdale ran aground in severe weather at Seapoint and Blackrock respectively.
The wreckage was strewn along the shore from Ringsend to Dalkey and many of those who died were buried in the graveyards at Carrickbrennan in Monkstown and at Merrion.
The tragedy led to a petition in 1808 calling for an asylum harbour in Dublin Bay which ultimately led to the construction of Dun Laoghaire Harbour a few years later.
Above: A contemporary drawing by Brocas showing the wreck of the Rochdale under Seapoint's Martello tower. Even given some artistic license, the location is probably quite accurate, as this is where an unpowered vessel would have been thrown up during an easterly gale. The shoreline has been very much altered here but the rocks were located on the level platform where the current lifeguard hut/toilets/ changing area is now.
Below: The 'Prince of Wales' struck the granite outcrop to the west of Seapoint Station, most likely on the east/north-eastern face (given the easterly storm) either below or to the east of the little brick tea house seen from the DART. This stretch of rocky coastline is one of the few in the county that has not been quarried, and the jagged granite foreshore seen today is probably that which tore the bottom out of the 'Prince of Wales'.
Below: As the ceremony concluded, a rainbow appeared, as if to mark the spot of the tragedy.
A DOUBLE DISASTER
Weston St. John Joyce, writing in 1920, recounted the double disaster:
"On the 18th November, two transport vessels, The Prince of Wales and The Rochdale, sailed in the company of some others from the Pigeonhouse harbour with volunteers for foreign service drawn from Irish militia regiments. A snowstorm set in soon after their departure, accompanied by a violent easterly gale, and on the following morning they were observed labouring in the heavy sea outside the Bay to the southward, endeavouring, as it was believed, to return to the harbour. As the day advanced the snow fell so thickly that it was impossible for them to see their way, while the sea was so violent that they could not come to anchor. After a long and futile struggle, The Prince of Wales was driven onto the rocks behind Sir John Lees' residence, Blackrock House. The long boat was launched, and Captain Jones, the crew, two soldiers and the steward's wife and child jumped into it and rowed off as speedily as possible. In the darkness of the night they seem to have rowed for some distance along the shore, of the proximity of which they were ignorant, until one of the sailors, falling overboard, found that he was in shallow water. Upon this the whole party walked ashore and made their way to Blackrock, where they found shelter. Extraordinary to relate they made no effort whatsoever to rescue the passengers on board (about 120 in number), who were left to their fate and perished without exception.
The fate of The Rochdale was even worse. On the day after her departure she was observed from Blackrock, labouring heavily in the offing, burning blue lights and firing guns as signals of distress, but the weather was such that no succour could be afforded. She threw out several anchors, but they dragged and snapped their cables, and she then drove with bare poles before the storm. Driven gradually towards the shore in the direction of Sandy cove, she swept in the darkness past the old pier at Dunleary, and struck on the rocks under the Martello Tower at Seapoint, half a mile from where The Prince of Wales struck. Of the troops on board, their families, and the ship's officers and crew (some 265 in all), not one escaped, and their mutilated bodies were found in great numbers next morning strewn along the shore".
Caption: Anthony Jordan from Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo, a distant relative of a victim, with Councillor Dennis O'Callaghan and Captain Simon Coate, Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company, at the commemoration ceremony in Seapoint, Co. Dublin
AFLOAT Magazine, http://www.afloat.ie/afloat/, Article Publisher
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