Quilty man remembered at SS Laurentic commemoration ceremony

IN the dead of what was a chillingly cold winter night on January 25, 1917, 354 men onboard the SS Laurentic lost their lives in Lough Swilly, Donegal.

 

Among those who drowned and were buried in a mass grave in Buncrana was Martin Moloney from Quilty. It is believed that the ship, which was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast and launched on September 10, 1908, was struck by two German mines.

A Laurentic Conference and wreath-laying ceremony was held in Buncrana last month. Joe Moloney, Martin’s grandson, was the only living relative of those lost in attendance.
“I was the only living relative there of those who died. They announced that when I was laying a wreath. The Canadian ambassador shook hands with me and said that he couldn’t believe that I was the only living relative there. They gave me the honour of reading the Irish roll,” Joe Moloney told The Clare Champion last week.

“My grandfather was from Quilty. He joined the navy very young. He was only 40 when he died. My father, Paddy, was only about 10 or 11 at the time,” Joe explained.

Joe now lives in Tuam but was brought up in Cooraclare before emigrating to England at 17. His late brother, Christy, developed a keen interest in their grandfather and had spent many hours researching his navy career.

“It was my brother, Christy, who knew all the history of this. He went up there and laid a wreath on the water. He said that on a calm day, when the tide was out, you could see the shadow of the ship. Christy died tragically here in Ennis.  I followed it up,” Joe said.

“I don’t know exactly when he joined the navy but I know he was in it a long time. He was in it when he got married. I don’t know much about him, only just what happened and how the ship hit a mine or a torpedo from the Germans,” Joe added.

According to the Laurentic Conference programme, the ship was a White Star Liner and was built to service the trans-Atlantic passenger trade.
It weighted 15,000 tonnes and was 525 feet in length. It could carry 1,660 passengers and was capable of travelling 20 knots. Her maiden voyage on April 9, 1909 was from Liverpool to Montreal, which was its regular route.

Margaret Moloney, Joe’s wife, said the ship was on route from the UK to Canada when it sank.
“The ship left Liverpool to go to Canada with gold bullion. Some of the men on board had survived the Somme. They were Canadians. They were on their way home on that ship. It was a passenger liner but it had been taken over by the British government at the time of the war. It had to come in to Lough Swilly because four of the men had Spotted Fever. It only stayed a few hours but when it was on its way out it was either torpedoed by the Germans or hit two German mines. We’re not sure but it was snowing and it was a very bad night,” Margaret recounted.

The ship was on its way to Halifax in Canada when it was given an order to put in at Lough Swilly to allow the four afflicted sailors to be taken from the ship. In the safe waters of Lough Swilly, Captain Reginald Norton allowed brief shore leave for some of the crew.

“In the gathering darkness of the late afternoon on January 25, 1917, the SS Laurentic nosed out of Lough Swilly,” the Laurentic Conference programme read.

“She passed through the boom that stretched across the lough, protecting the waters from the U boat threat. On her starboard side loomed the great guns of Dunree Fort. On her port side flashed the lighthouse on Fanad Head,” the programme revealed.

“As the ship increased to 16 knots, there was a sudden explosion followed by a second. Within 20 minutes the liner had sank with 354 men losing their lives in the bitterly cold waters.”
Just 121 survivors made it safely to shore. In the days that followed, the largest known funeral in Buncrana’s history gripped the seaside community while for months afterwards the bodies of drowned seamen washed up on the Donegal coastline.

Most of the deceased were buried in a mass grave in Buncrana.

“My father never talked much about my grandfather. My older sister, Kathleen, said that he had found it very hard to cope and to accept, as a child, that his father had died,” Joe Moloney reflected.

“He was awarded a medal for good conduct and loyal service. There’s a monument in Plymouth and his name is on it, as are all of the people who died on the Laurentic,” Martin’s grandson concluded proudly.