The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
IN January 1947, the Okeanos, a Panamanian-owed steamship, made its way from the River Plate in South America (now the area of Argentina and Uruguay) to Limerick, delivering grain to the firm Ranks, whose grain silo was a well known landmark on the docks in the city. Captain Lampraidos and the other crew members were mostly Greek natives. My father, Eamon Ginnane, tracked ships as they came and went along the Shannon Estuary from his farm in Rahona. In mid-January, he spied the Okeanos on its way to Limerick and saw the ship again a few days later, anchored off Carrigaholt Bay, noting the difference in its height out of the water, since its cargo of 5,000 tonnes of grain had been deposited in Limerick City. On the night of January 13, the Okeanos hit the rocks at Kilcredaun Point and sounded her siren. As soon as the siren sounded, the first on the scene were local farmers from the …
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