A CRUEL SEA

Vessel Ashore

Belfast News-Letter, Tuesday 17 September 1861

The barque Cora, Wallace master, from Clyde to St. Jago de Cuba, got ashore in the gale of Saturday night on Skullmartin Rock, off Ballywalter, and it is feared may become a wreck unless the weather moderates greatly. Early on Sunday morning, Messrs. Sinclair & Boyd received intelligence of the accident, and at once proceeded to the spot, sending round the steamer Wonder to give assistance. The vessel was outward bound from Greenock for St. Jago de Cuba, with a cargo of coals, iron, machinery, rice, &c. She sailed from the Tail of the Bank off Greenock about eight on Saturday morning, and got ashore at Skullmartin about ten that night, in a heavy gale of wind. Every exertion is being used by Messrs. Sinclair & Boyd to have her taken off. The crew were all got ashore by them in safety, and were sent last night by the mail steamer to Greenock.

The Cora.

Belfast News-Letter, Friday 20 September 1861.

Yesterday afternoon, this vessel, which got ashore on the night of Saturday last at Skullmartin Rock, near Ballywalter, was towed up to our quay and berthed at Clarendon Dock. Messrs. Sinclair & Boyd having used every exertion to get out cargo, and a large proportion of it having been got out by Wednesday morning, these gentlemen had some of the powerful pumps which had been used on board the City of Lucknow sent for and placed on board the Cora; with these it was found possible to keep the vessel pretty clear of water, and a very low ebb tide yesterday morning permitted a number of carpenters, who were on the spot under the direction of Mr. Alexander McLaine, to get a good part of her “fore-foot” caulked. A Southerly wind having favored a good flood next tide, and, all things being ready for a trial, the ship was floated and at once taken in tow by the steamer Wonder, and brought round to our river in safety. The hands employed on board pumping, of whom there were a large number, cheered lustily as the vessel passed along from Prince’s Dock to her moorings. We understand that much credit is due to Messrs. Sinclair & Boyd for the speedy and successful manner in which this vessel has been rescued.

WRECK OF A VESSEL AT BALLYWALTER

17th January 1864

This rugged stretch of coast with its black-fanged rocks witnessed exciting scenes on 17 January 1864, when, in a hard south-easterly gale, the Belfast schooner Daniel Webster was forced aground. Her crew clambered into the rigging, and, observing their plight, two boats set out from the shore, manned by Joseph Mountstephens and Frederick Gray, both coastguards, and nine Ballywalter men. At great risk, the six crew of the schooner were taken off their disintegrating vessel, an exploit for which their rescuers were each rewarded from the Mercantile Marine Fund. Meanwhile, at Ballyhalbert, six miles to the south, another Belfast collier, the brig Eunice, and the Emma of Wigtown, were ashore and being battered by wind and sea. Three men were lost and two saved from each coaster, the rescue of the survivors of the Emma being effected by the Mary Ann, a small Ballyhalbert boat crewed by six local men, James Curran, James Cully, William Blakely, Hugh McMaster and David and John McVea. Three men of the Emma had given up their numb hold on the rigging by the time the Mary Ann approached at great risk and snatched to safety the skipper and sole remaining crew member. Again, the rescuers were awarded cash sums from the Mercantile Marine Fund.

The Long Rock, off Ballywalter, marks the commencement of a series of off-shore rocks, steep on the seaward side, which stretches to the Ship Rock, three miles to the north. The number of wrecks in this menacing area, and on the Skulmartin, south-east of Ballywalter, finally prompted the establishment of a lifeboat station in the village in 1866. The night of 1 - 2 January 1867 was a wild one, blowing force nine from the east and snowing heavily. In the bleak light of dawn, the trained eyes of Robert Boyd, the lifeboat coxswain, noticed wreckage on the Long Rock, and, alerting his men, they set out in the lifeboat Admiral Henry Meynell to investigate. Four sodden and weak men were found clinging to spars and rigging, all that remained of the brigantine General Williams, a collier bound from Maryport to Belfast, which had struck at 2 a.m. and become a total wreck in ten minutes. Boyd and his crew brought the exhausted men ashore, and also recovered the body of a young deckhand, Richard Gribben of Ardglass, who had succumbed to exposure shortly before first light. One man's condition gave particular cause for worry, but he was tended at Boyd's house and slowly revived, while his colleagues were looked after by Mr. William Morrison and supplied with new clothing by William Gibson, a local merchant and ship owner. The General Williams, built at Shelburne, Nova Scotia, in 1856, was the property of John and James Stewart, coal merchants of Belfast, and Martin Wallace, a brick manufacturer.

Perilous Position of a Vessel.

Belfast News-Letter, Monday 6 December 1869.

This morning, about three o'clock, the look-out man at the Roddens Station observed a vessel making signals of distress on Skullmartin Rock. He at once informed the active and intelligent chief officer, Mr. Blissenden, who, deeming it too boisterous to proceed to her assistance in his own boat, immediately despatched a man to inform the coxswain of the Admiral Meynel [Admiral Henry Meynell] lifeboat, stationed at Ballywalter. Although the wind, at the time, was blowing from North to North-East, with an extremely heavy sea, the coxswain and his crew promptly put out, reached the vessel, and rescued the captain and crew (four) from their perilous position. Some idea of the danger incurred may be inferred from the fact that it was necessary for the crew to pass their clothes and slide down themselves by a rope thrown from the jib-boom and attached to the lifeboat. In the early morning it was supposed the vessel would break up, but about nine o'clock the wind and sea moderated a little, when Capt. Morrison, with Mr. McKelvey, Lloyd’s agent, and a few of the sailors of the village, and the crew brought her safe into Ballywalter Harbour. She is the schooner Brenton, of Fowey, John Francis Organ, master, bound from Ardrossan to Newport, Monmouthshire, with a cargo of 150 tons pig iron.

Perilous Position of a Vessel.

Belfast News-Letter, Tuesday 7 December 1869.

The schooner Brenton, of Fowey, which went ashore at Ballywalter when on passage from Ardrossan to Newport with a cargo of pig iron, has been towed off by the tug Zealous, and brought to Belfast for the necessary repairs. Part of the cargo had to be thrown overboard prior to her being got off.

WRECK OF A VESSEL AT BALLYWALTER
(From the Newtownards Chronicle, 23rd Dec 1876)
 

On Friday night a vessel was driven ashore at Ballywalter. The lifeboat, "Admiral Meynell" was launched, and proceeded in the direction of which the signals of distress were observed. It was with the greatest difficulty that the wreck was reached. The wind blew with terrific violence, and there was a tremendous sea running, and the dangerous nature of the spot where the vessel lay rendered the task of nearing sufficiently close to take off the crew one of the most perilous character. It was obliged to sail three times round before the crew could safely attempt the rescue, and after battling with the wind and waves for a long time the gallant and hardy crew succeeded in taking aboard and bringing ashore, in an exhausted state, William Mann, the captain, and his crew of four men. The vessel proved to be the brigantine Jenny Lind, of the port of Coleraine, 200 tons burthen, coal-laden, and bound from Maryport to Portrush, where her owner, Mr John R. Watt resides. On the voyage her rudder was carried away by the violence of the waves, and she of course became unmanageable, and was carried before the wind to the south point of the Long Rock, where she struck stem on. She afterwards drifted over to the Ocean Rock off Ballyferris, where she at present lies a total wreck.

SHIPPING CASUALTY

(From the Newtownards Chronicle, 10^th March 1877)

About one o’clock on Saturday morning during the dense fog that prevailed, the steamer Ennismore, of Glasgow, with a cargo of iron ore from Whitehaven to Bowling, ran ashore on Wallace’s rocks, near Ballywalter.  Mr. John Bell, sub-agent to Lloyd’s, and Mr Henry M’Kelvy, shipping agent, went to the assistance of the vessel, and through their exertions, and that of captain and crew, she was got off about two p.m., and proceeded on her voyage to Bowling having apparently sustained but little damage

The building to the right in the photograph is the Roddens boathouse from which the lifeboat was launched The coastguard cottages are the houses with the light coloured gables and although renovated are still there today. The boathouse no longer exists.

THE RECENT SHIPWRECK AND LOSS OF FIVE LIVES

 THE BOAZ. THE RODDENS

(From The Newtownards Chronicle, 14^th April 1877)

At an early hour on Monday morning a catastrophe of an extremely melancholy character occurred between Ballywalter and the village of Ballyhalbert, at a place called the Roddens, a dangerous part of the coast, which is annually the scene of numerous shipwrecks, whereby five lives were lost.  The weather on Sunday night and Monday morning was rough and rainy, and about half past five o’clock a smack was seen helplessly driving ashore in Ballyhalbert Bay, about half a mile from the Roddens coastguard station.  She proved to be the Boaz, of Carnarvon, bound from Glasgow to Dundalk with a cargo of coal.  She struck on a sunken reef, and immediately filled and sank.  The crew, consisting of the captain, a man, and a boy, took to the rigging, and as a heavy sea was breaking over the vessel it was feared she would immediately go to pieces.  The look-out of the coastguards at once gave the alarm, and without delay Mr. John Aiken, chief-officer, and his men, Rees, Greenham, Hollingshead, and Coffin launched the galley to go to the rescue.  Mr. John Bell, of Ballyhalbert, Lloyd’s agent, and Captain Bailie, of Ballywalter, joined the coastguards in the perilous enterprise, and the brave fellows pulled off to save the crew of the doomed ship.  They succeeded, by almost superhuman efforts, in getting sufficiently near the wreck to throw a life-line to the men, and with great difficulty got them safely into the boat and made for the shore, but a heavy ground swell caught the galley, and in an instant ten brave fellows were battling for life with the waves.  Only five succeeded in reaching land, and these in a most exhausted state.  Bell, Bailie, Rees, the captain, and boy from the wreck were lost.  A number of people gathered on the shore to render assistance, and it is said that Miss Bella Clingan rushed into the water and caught one of the coastguards in the surf and aided him in successfully landing.  The bodies of Captain Bailie and Mr. Bell were washed ashore.  This melancholy event has created a profound impression of sadness in the neighbourhood.

            The detailed facts in connection with the sad event will be best understood by our reporter’s notes of the evidence given at the inquests, as follows:-

At one o’clock, on Tuesday, Wm. Davidson, Esq., Coroner, held two inquests – one in the house of Captain Bailie, Ballyobican, and the other afterwards in the house of John Bell, Ballyhalbert, both of whom had been drowned the previous morning in their heroic efforts to save the crew of the smack Boaz, bound from Glasgow to Dundalk.  The following were the jury:- William Moreland (foreman), James Caughey, Hugh M’Master, Thomas Johnston, Charles Coffey, Alex. Bailie, Wm. M’Climmont, Andrew Coffey, James Wilson, John M’Master, Adam Miller, Robert M’Cullough, Robert Gilmore, Hugh Ellison, and John Clingan. 

Mary Bailie, who was the first witness, said, in answer to the CORONER – Deceased was my husband, and was 60 years of age.  He was a seafaring man all his life, and had been a captain in the employment of Mr. Gibson, Ballywalter.  He was roused yesterday morning about five o’clock by parties tinkling on the window and saying that men were being drowned.  He got up at once and went right out to the shore with the view of rendering assistance.  He was in good health when he left his house.  I did not see him again alive.  I saw his dead body after six o’clock lying on the beach at the Roddens.  All the people about did everything they could to restore him to life when he was lying on the sand, but without effect. 

David Clingan – I knew deceased.  Mrs. M’Kee awoke me yesterday morning at ten minutes to five o’clock to go down to the beach.  I did so, and found three men clinging to the rigging of a vessel which was in the breakers opposite me.  She was out about 250 yards, and the tide was coming in.  The wind was right east, blowing on the shore.  A coastguard boat was got out, and I saw deceased enter it with the officer of the coastguards and five other men. They rowed out to the vessel, and took off the men in the rigging.  A tremendous sea was running at the time.  The yawl took a great sea, and she was capsized.  The men were all thrown out of the boat.  I could see no mismanagement of the boat the men were in.  All the men who went out to sea were experienced seamen except Mr. Bell, of Ballyhalbert, who was also drowned.  The boat was quite capable of carrying all that were in her had the weather been fine, but the sea was furious.  The men were all sober, as far as I could see.  The boat with deceased might have been away from the shore about twenty-five minutes till the time she was swamped.  The body was washed into shallow water, and then caught.  I think he was then quite dead.  Every exertion was made to restore life, but all to no purpose.  It was entirely owing to the boisterous state of the sea that the boat capsized.  The sea was so high I could not tell whether the men were attempting to swim or not.  There was no other boat about.  Out of all that were in the boat (ten in number) five were saved and five were drowned. 

James Grenham – I am a coastguard, stationed at the Roddens.  John Rees, the coastguard, who was drowned, was on the lookout yesterday morning.  He reported, about ten minutes to five o’clock, that a vessel was on shore, with the hands clinging to the rigging.  We all turned out as soon as possible.  There were four of us with the officer.  We immediately got the boat out, and John Aiken (officer) and four of us went, as also John Bell and Robert Bailie, both of whom volunteered to go out to the rescue of the men.  The boat is a good one, but very heavy.  The sea was boisterous, with broken water.  We got to the vessel all right, and she proved to be a smack named the Boaz.  We got the men who were clinging to the rigging all right in our boat, which was not overladen.  We backed her astern on coming back, to enable us to keep her head to the sea.  It would have been more dangerous had we attempted to turn the boat.  When about forty yards from the vessel a very heavy sea struck her bows, and put her broadside on – just what we wanted to avoid.  The next sea filled her up to the thwart (seats).  The third sea turned the boat right over, and threw all the hands out.  We did everything in our power to prevent that.  We then did the best we could to regain the shore, and when in shallow water we were taken hold of by the people on the beach.  I was much exhausted at the time.  I did not see the deceased alive after he was thrown into the water.  He was a good swimmer.  The boat was afterwards washed in.

The jury, after the foregoing evidence was adduced, proceeded to Ballyhalbert, about two miles distant from Ballyobican, where the inquest on John Bell was held.  The jury having answered to their names and viewed the body of the deceased, the examination of witnesses was resumed.

Mary Ann Bell – I am the wife of the deceased John Bell, who belonged to this town.  He was thirty-six years of age.  He was an innkeeper, and kept a posting establishment.  He was also agent here for Lloyd’s.  On Monday morning a man came to the window, and told him to get up, as there was a vessel on shore.  That man was Thomas Harkness.  My husband got up at once, yoked the horse and car, and proceeded to the wreck.  That was the last time I saw him alive.  I heard he was drowned shortly before seven o’clock.  He could not swim, but was well able to manage a boat.  He was often out in the summer time in his own boat.

William Coffin – I am a coastguard, stationed at the Roddens, about two miles from Ballyhalbert.  I got word yesterday morning that a vessel was in danger, and men in the rigging.  We launched the boat.  I got a horse from Henry Murland, and drew the boat abreast the vessel.  That would be about fifteen minutes past five o’clock.  Just as we were launching the boat deceased came up and helped us.  He volunteered to go into the boat with us.  There were four of us and the officer, with John Bell and Captain Bailey.  We succeeded in taking the crew off – three in number – by a rope.  We endeavoured to come back, but the sea was rough, with breakers, and the boat swamped, and all of us were thrown out into the water.  I gave Rees, who was lost, an oar, and told him to stick to that.  I then saw the boy belonging to the vessel, and he was screaming.  I next saw Captain Bailey with his face down in the water.  He had made his way three parts of the shore and appeared to be exhausted.  I could render no assistance, the waves were so great.  It was impossible to assist each other.  I did not see the deceased (Bell) after the boat ‘canted’, but I assisted to restore the body of Captain Bailey.  We laid him across a rock, and he was throwing up water then from his mouth and nose.  His body was warm.  Had the people taken him to his house, and the usual remedies been adopted, he might have been saved.  We were nearly all exhausted.  I think I was the least, as I got ashore first.  I heard that Mr Bell’s legs got entangled with the rope which he had in the boat, and with which we took the men from the wreck.  I was assisted to the shore by a woman, but I don’t know her.

John Edwards – I am a Welshman, and was on board the smack Boaz as mate. She was bound from Glasgow to Dundalk with a cargo of coal.  The crew consisted of Humphrey Rees (captain), William Lloyd (boy), and myself.  She was 36 tons registered, and left Glasgow on Saturday.  Sunday night was very rough, blowing fresh, and dark.  We were all on the watch, and all perfectly sober.  The first thing we saw on Monday morning was the South Rock Light near here; that would be about one o’clock.  We also discovered the shore.  We ‘bouted ship when we found ourselves out of our way.  The sheet of the jib unhooked and halyards got fouled.  The smack was then going to pieces, but we had not enough canvas on her to enable us to keep out for sea.  We gradually took the ground.  We dropped the anchor when we found we could not get clear off.  That would be about two o’clock.  She dragged her anchor.  About four o’clock we tried the pumps – the sea was breaking onto the decks, and we were obliged to take to the rigging.  We remained there till we were taken off.  We were on the rigging about an hour.  When the boat capsized I swam ashore, and was picked up by a woman.  I was unable to stand. I made no effort to save anyone, because I could not, the sea was so high.  The smack was strong, but old.  She was sufficiently manned.  Thomas Harkness deposed to the finding of the body of the deceased on the beach.

The CORONER, in charging the jury, referred in pathetic terms to the self-devotion of the men who had risked their lives to save a shipwrecked crew, and considered that no blame was attachable to any person whatsoever, as the catastrophe, however melancholy, appeared altogether of an accidental character.

After a short consultation, the jury found a verdict to the effect ‘That the deceased men were accidentally drowned whilst in the meritorious act of endeavouring to save the lives of the crew of the smack Boaz, on the morning of Monday last.’

                                  Constable Walsh, Kirkcubbin, had charge of the inquests.

THE FUNERALS.

On Wednesday afternoon the bodies of Captain Bailie and Mr. John Bell were interredin Ballyhalbert Graveyard.  Captain Bailie’s funeral left his late residence at Ballyobican at one o’clock, and the Rev. David Magill, D.D., officiated at the grave.  Mr. Bell’s remains were interred two hours later in the same place.  The Rev. Mr. Clouston, Portaferry officiated.  Both funerals were largely attended by relatives and friends of the deceased, and sympathisers with their sorrowing relations.

                                                                              THE BALLYWALTER SHIPWRECK

(From The Newtownards Chronicle, 22^nd April 1877)

A Government inquiry has been held here in reference to the loss of life in connection with the wreck of the Boaz.  The gentlemen appointed to conduct the inquiry were Captain Cameron, R.N., Inspecting Commander, Newcastle, and Captain Sanders, R.N., Inspecting Commander, Donaghadee.  After examining witnesses in reference to the catastrophe, they found that, taking into consideration the immediate peril of the crew of the Boaz, who had taken to the rigging, and the sea breaking over her, with a rapidly-flowing tide, they were of opinion that there was no time to be lost, and that Mr. Aiken observed a proper judgment in using the station boat on the occasion; and they further wished to express their high sense of the gallant and praiseworthy conduct of Mr. Aikin and those who accompanied him in the boat.  Subscriptions for the benefit of the widows and orphans of those drowned on the occasion referred to are being collected in Newtownards by Mr. James Boyle, Mr. John Copeland, Mr. D. Stormont, and Mr. C. C. Russell.  Donations for this laudable object will be gratefully received by the above gentlemen, as also by the proprietor of this journal, and acknowledged by the Newtownards Chronicle.  We hope that the gallant fellows who risked their lives in going out in the rescue boat, and all those who assisted on the shore, will not be lost sight of by the authorities in the present appeal to a generous public.

THE LATE SHIPPING DISASTER NEAR BALLYWALTER

(From The Newtownards Chronicle, 12^th May 1877)

We are glad to see that the thanks of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, inscribed on vellum, have been presented to Miss Clinghan, daughter of a farmer residing near Ballywalter, for rushing into the surf and assisting (as previously described in this journal) to save five out of ten men who were coming ashore in the coastguard boat from the smack Boaz, of Carnarvon, wrecked near Ballywalter during the gale on the 9^th of April, when the boat capsized in the heavy sea, and drowned five men.  The sum of £10 was also granted to the boat’s crew for their praiseworthy services in thus promptly going to the help of those on the wreck.  This case is, no doubt, painfully fresh in the memory of our readers, and we have frequently drawn public attention to the heroic efforts of Miss Clinghan and others who assisted to save life on the above occasion, whose claims, we hope, will not be overlooked.  Subscriptions for the benefit of widows and orphans of those drowned whilst coming from the wreck are being gratefully given, and Mr. James Boyle and Mr. John Copeland, of Newtownards, have, to their credit, collected a very handsome sum towards this praiseworthy object.

SHIPPING CASUALTY AT BALLYWALTER

13th November 1879

Casualty on the Skulmartin, the iron schooner Ladyland, also brought repercussions, Captain Ritchie and the second mate both forfeiting their Certificates for three months. The Ladyland, bound with pitch from Glasgow to Port de Bouc near Marseilles, was wrecked on 13 November 1879. The last total loss on the Skulmartin was the barque Cayuni, which stranded and later went on fire on 30 September 1883, when on passage from Glasgow to Demerara.

Like most of Britain's lifeboats, the Ballywalter station had a distinguished and colourful history. The station was closed in 1906, as the coastguards had withdrawn from the locality, leaving the boat with insufficient men to crew it, but there had never been a regular crew, and volunteers were often enlisted. Twice on difficult services a clergyman was on board. The Reverend Henry R. Wilson, incumbent of Drumbeg near Ballywalter, helped make up the numbers when the boat was launched on the dark evening of 15 December 1876 to aid the schooner jenny Lind of Coleraine, Maryport for Portrush with coal, which had lost her rudder in a southerly gale and been beaten on to the Long Rock. At the third attempt, the lifeboat came alongside the jenny Lind -- named after a celebrated Swedish opera singer of the day - and snatched to safety Captain Monaghan and the crew of four. At a meeting of the R.N.L.I in London the following month, it was agreed to present Rev. Wilson -with the thanks of the Institution inscribed in vellum for his role in the rescue feat.

When the square-rigger Castlemaine came ashore in Ballyhalbert Bay at 10 p.m. on 3 March 1881, it was blowing so hard from the south-east that the lifeboat could not be launched till 8 ;am., but when the chew began their exhausting row to the scene, among them was Rev. Blackwood, incumbent Of Ballywalter. At last, after great toil, they pulled under the lee rail of the Castlemaine and took off her crew of twenty-five. Destined for Rangoon, the big deep-sea sailor had left the Clyde two days previously, but became a total loss for her owners, T. Williams and Co. of Liverpool.

SHIPPING CASUALTY AT BALLYWALTER

(From The Newtownards Chronicle, 6th November 1880)

The Fitzjames, of Glasgow, an iron screw steamer, bound from the Clyde to Genoa with a general cargo, is reported ashore on Skulmartin Rock, near Ballywalter, making water. It is stated that the heavy fog which prevailed in the channel during the night was the cause of the casualty. The Fitzjames is a vessel of about 1,000 tons burthen. She was built at Port Glasgow in 1877, and is owned by Messers Burrell & Son, of Glasgow.

SHIPWRECK AT BALLYWALTER

(From The Newtownards Chronicle, 21st October 1882)

During a furious gale from the south-east, with heavy squalls of rain and high seas, at half-past one o’clock on Thursday morning the lights of a vessel ashore near Table Rock, in the vicinity of Ballywalter, were distinguished. The crew of the lifeboat of the National Lifeboat Institution quickly assembled, and the boat having been taken on her carriage as near as possible to the scene of the wreck, was launched, and proceeded to the stranded vessel, which proved to be the brig St. George, 265 tons, of and from Maryport, in ballast. The crew of nine men were then taken into the lifeboat and safely landed. It was trying service, the night being very wild, but both lifeboats and crew behaved admirably. The Rev. J. O’Reilly Blackwood, honorary secretary of the Ballywalter branch of the Lifeboat Institution, took an active part in the work of the lifeboat on this occasion.

BALLYWALTER SHIPPING CASUALTY

(From the Newtownards Chronicle, 25th October 1884)

 On Thursday morning, about four o’clock, lights were observed by the coastguards from a vessel which had struck on the Long Rock, off Ballywalter. The crew of the lifeboat were at once mustered, and proceeded to the vessel, which proved to be the Trail, of Donaghadee (Peter Smith owner), with a cargo of coals from Whitehaven. The weather was thick and a fresh breeze blowing at the time. The lifeboat brought the captain ashore, the remainder of the crew remaining on board. Boats went alongside endeavouring to take her off. Mr Ratcliffe, Assistant Receiver of Wrecks at Belfast, and Captain J F Chevalier (representing the local under-writers, Messrs Sinclair & Boyd), on being informed of the occurrence, left Belfast in a tug steamer for the purpose of rendering assistance.