Extract
of a letter from Waterford September 9th 1783;
About
4 o’clock on Saturday evening during a severe gale of wind, a large vessel, square
rigged, was observed near three leagues from Tramore, in very great distress.
Several guns were heard during the night and in the morning there was no
tidings. She seemed to be a foreigner, had white sides and the sea ran so very
high that there was no possibility of affording her assistance. [1]
This
sighting is possibly connected to reports from Waterford, later in the same
month:
Last
Sunday a sloop from Flushing, for this port, laden with iron and staves, was,
in a hard gale of wind, wrecked off Ballymacaw, and four of the crew drowned.
The captain, two men and a boy, were providentially saved. Mr Michael Farrell
immediately brought the survivors to his home, (in that village) and treated
them with the politeness, humanity, and hospitality, which characterise this
kingdom.
Monday
the sails and rigging of another vessel were seen floating off Rathwhelan, and
the bodies of four men, supposed to have belonged to her, found among the
rocks. It is thought she came from some port in France, as several casks of
wine and brandy, French gloves, almonds, and cotton, were drove ashore at
Craden-head, Messrs Rogers and Lymbery, coast officers, on hearing of the
wreck, instantly went to protect the property. [2]
It
is interesting to note that John Rogers remit extended as far as Rathwhelan. It
is noteworthy that he and the coast officer, John Lymbery were brothers in law.
John had married Lymbery’s sister Jane, ‘daughter of Gregory Lymbery of
Ballinlough and Elizabeth Stephens on Friday 6 February 1777’. [3]
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