Remains of the ship Eugénie, wrecked in Ballymacotter Bay, Ireland. 1866. Source: Illustrated London News. Click on image to enlarge it.
Article accompanying the illustration above
The passage below was created using ABBYY FineReader to render the Hathi Digital Library images into text. — George P. Landow
The heavy gales which have prevailed with such violence during the last fortnight along the south coast of Ireland occasioned the loss of several hne vessels. The wreck of the Eugénie, at Ballymacotter, near the entrance to Cork harbour, was very remarkable. This vessel had left Liverpool a month before, and was bound for America, but had not been able to get away from the Irish coast, being caught in the gale, and compelled to cut away her mainmast. Finding it impossible to proceed, she bore up and made the Old Head of Kinsale. Here she fell in with three pilot-boats, and the captain observed a man on board one of them waving to him. which ne understood as an indication to follow. This he did, as well as he could, till the thick atmosphere shut out the pilot-boat from his view. The next thing he saw was land, and shortly after, at ten a.m., he let go both anchors in Ballymacotter Bay, which is the place shown in our Illustration. The fore and mizen masts had to be cut away, and went over the side without causing any injury. After the vessel had been hove-to about two hours her anchors broke, and then followed the disaster, the ship being dashed to pieces on the rocks and her captain and twelve of the crew drowned. When the vessel first parted, two men were sent in a boat towards the shore, but the boat capsized. The captain, Mr. W. M‘Neily, of Sligo, attempted to reach the shore by the means of a life-buoy, but he is believed to have been struck by a spar, and thus rendered powerless. The chief officer, Mr. Russell, of Belfast (who, with the carpenter, James Morin, was the last to leave the ship), had a very narrow escape, and was ultimately saved by having a rope cast to him when he reached the rocks; the carpenter was drowned. The ship went to pieces in less than half an hour. This distressing scene was beheld by a great number of persons on shore.
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Bibliography
“Wreck of the Ship Eugénie, near Cork” Illustrated London News 48 (27 January 1866): 49, 52. Hathi Trust Digital Library version of a copy in the University of Michigan Library. Web. 18 December 2015.
Last modified 18 December 2015