S.S. Connemara and the Coal Carrier Retriever Sinking in 1916

Early on the morning of Friday the 3rd of November 1916, Captain Patrick O’Neill of the coal carrier Retriever steered his ship out of Garston’s Coal Docks near Liverpool, heading for Newry in Northern Ireland, with a crew predominantly from the destination town. Due to the extreme weather conditions, by the time the Retriever was off Ireland her cargo of coal had shifted, and she was probably somewhat unstable.

Later that day, the 50-year-old Captain George H. Doeg (born near Carlisle), and his ship the S.S. Connemara, left Greenore for Holyhead, with a crew predominantly from the port town of Holyhead on the Isle of Anglesey in North Wales.

The Connemara was a daily ferry between Holyhead and Greenore that carried passengers, livestock and cargo, and whilst it was wartime, and there was an ever-present threat from German U-Boats patrolling the Irish sea, to the Captain’s wife Mary Doeg it would have seemed that her husband had left on a routine journey and that he would return the next day.

Neither ship or their crews, nor the families of the crews and passengers aboard, were aware that the fate of both ships was intertwined, and fatally sealed.

The night of November the 3rd 1916 was a particularly dark night, but because of the danger of German submarines both ships operated with just minimal lighting. In gale-force winds and mountainous seas the two ships collided off Carlingford Bar, despite the lighthouse keeper from the Halbowline lighthouse firing flares to warn them they were too close.

The Retriever collided with the S.S. Connemara, holing her amidships. Invariably – I have found during research – when a steamship sinks, the boilers explode on contact with the sea, and thus the S.S. Connemara slipped beneath the waves within minutes. The Retriever took a little longer, but she also sank to the bottom. Just one man would escape this terrible accident, James Boyle of the Retriever, a 20-year-old fireman. He seldom spoke of the disaster, at least until he was an old man, and he subsequently passed away in 1967.

The next day washed up over 50 bodies. They were mutilated by the boiler explosion, rough seas, or rocks. Over the next weeks, bodies were washed up on beaches, and identification of the corpses was nigh impossible, having to rely on clothing and jewellery.

In Holyhead, the crew are listed on the War Memorial, and some of the crew members are mentioned on their family graves. In Ireland, there was a military funeral with honours to an Unknown Soldier at St Patrick’s Churchyard in Newry, where there is a memorial. Several of the soldiers lost on the Connemara are remembered at the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton, and the schoolchildren of Kilkeel High School erected a stone memorial in Kilkeel Cemetery.

There were in excess of 90 casualties in total, 31 of which were the Holyhead crew of the Connemara, along with 51 of her passengers, and on the Collier Retriever, 8 of the 9 crew lost their lives.

Captain George H. Doeg is believed to have been buried in Ireland. A memorial to the Connemara was held at St Cybi’s Church in Holyhead in November 2006.

I have tried to put on this webpage as much information as I can about the crews and passengers, all of which will have been researched by a number of people, and I thank them. I just hope having all the information in one place will make it simpler for anyone researching this incident. If you have any high-res photographs of the Retriever and/or the crews of either ship or even additional facts or family anecdotes I would love to add them to this page.

The graves where some of the crew are remembered:

Here are the lists that I have been able to put together from a multiple of internet resources – It is about two thirds complete.