The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Heritage Iveragh mark Elizier
RICHARD Foran, Secretary of the Valentia RNLI, Timothy Lyne it’s Treasurer and Deputy Launching Authority and Sean Curran it’s Assistant Treasurer were recently invited by Heritage Iveragh (Odhreacht Uibh Rathaigh) to attend the unveiling of a monument in Waterville as a commemoration to the memory of all those lost at sea in the Ballinskelligs Bay area over the course of the past hundred years. They attended in association with other significant search and rescue services operating in the area as well as in other Irish communities..
Heritage Iveragh’s project was spawned by local historian Sheila Burns, who was intrigued by the ribs of a ship protruding from the sand at the estuary of the Inny River in Ballinskelligs Bay. In 2008 she completed her fieldwork project on the wreck for a UCC Achaeology course. This, together with further research carried out by Sheila and others, using Danish and additional sources, revealed the story of the wreck of the Danish ship SV Elizier which was washed ashore on November 1916. All five crew members were drowned.
Thus Heritage Iveragh, which was established in 2009, decided to mark the centenary of the Elizier with the erection of a monument in Waterville. It was decided that this commemoration of the loss of the Elizier would also symbolise the tragic loss of all other lives in Ballinskelligs Bay over the years. Tribute would also be paid to the search and rescue services that operate in the bay and in other Irish coastal communities.
Heritage Iveragh produced a booklet in commemoration of the recent event, entitled Ballinskelligs Bay (Bá Na Scealg) 1916-2016. Tragedy and Tribute in which the story of the Elizier is related as follows: On November 24, 1916, through driving rain and gale force winds, an unknown ship entered Ballinskelligs Bay. But all was not well. The Elizier which had left the Canadian port of Miramichi on October 16th with a cargo of timber bound for Limerick, was now far from her intended course with her five man crew. An Atlantic winter storm centred off southern Iceland had brought her to the coast of South Kerry. The Elizier, a 119 ton Danish three mast schooner, built in Landskrona Sweden, with her five man crew on board, was about to meet her fate.
After struggling to keep the ship afloat in the violent gale, the efforts of the brave crew were in vain as the ship capsized, spilling some of their timber cargo into the bay and the upturned Elizier drifted towards the shore. The floating remains were described by the late father of Willie Goggin of Ballinskelligs as resembling a floating reek of turf.
The remains of the ship were washed ashore near the estuary of the Inny River to the northwest of Waterville village.The late Batty O’Connell of Ballybrack Waterville had heard from his father that ‘it was a night of fierce gales’. The timber was piled high on the deck making it top heavy,causing the ship to capsize. Horses and carts came from all over South Kerry to collect the timber. There was so much timer floating on the sea you could almost walk from Rineen to Ballinskelligs on the sea!
The severe weather and dangerous conditions prevented local authorities from reaching the stricken ship immediately. In fact, the spell of inclement weather would mean that salvaging of the ship and the recovery of bodies would take months.
While newspaper reports refer to only two bodies being found, some local sources including one contemporary one mention three.
They were buried in the cemetery of St. Michael and All Angels church, Waterville.