Ballyhack remembers 29 men who perished in sea
THE drowning of 29 men on the ill-fated Alfred D Snow ship in the Graveyard of 1,000 Ships off the Wexford coast on January 4, 1888, was remembered on Monday night last when a plaque was erected in their name at Balyhack graveyard where some of the men are buried.
Ballyhack and Arthurstown Resident’s Association, in conjunction with Ballyhack NS, undertook the project in January to commemorate the men who drowned off Broomhill in Templetown. The ship’s captain, W.H. Wilby’s body was washed ashore in Arthurstown and several of the men were buried in Ballyhack graveyard.
4th, 5th and 6th class pupils at Ballyhack NS reserahced the three masted, fully rigged ship’s history from when it was made at Samuel Watts’s shipyard in Thomaston, Maine to its many journeys up to when it left San Francisco carrying 46,233 sacks of flour and wheat bound for Liverpool only for its crew to perish in stormy seas near Arthurstown.
The ship initially grounded under Loftus Hall before sinking near Broomhill. It is not known if the crew were trying to come into the harbour when the vessel sank after a huge swell took them along the coast. The crew of a steamer called The Dauntless tried to rescue the men but to no avail as the vessel had been broken asunder in the storm. Some of the pupils did a power point display at the school. The pupils sang Home From The Sea and afterwards the 200-strong crowd in attendance walked to the graveyard where pupils unveiled a plaque to the 29 men who perished. Ronan Berry sang the ballad the Alfred D Snow and Liam Drought of the residents’ association spoke of the sinking of the Alfred D Snow, while Monsignor Don Kenny blessed the plaque and the pupils once again sang Home From The Sea. The project was featured on RTE News.
Former Ballyhack NS teacher Ann Cummins, who was involved in the project, said: ‘It was an absolutely fantastic community event. The children were superb.’