Drowning Fatality at Ballinacurra – A Captain Lost
Waterford
Standard 20 March 1901
A very sad and rather
tragic fatality occurred at Ballinacurra late on Friday night, the victim being
Patrick Christopher, captain or skipper of the three masted schooner Maria
McMillian, a vessel belonging to a merchant in Dungarvan named McCarthy. It appears that the deceased arrived with his
vessel on Friday from Plymouth with a cargo of guano manure for a local
merchant, and being engaged during the evening in doing some necessary business
about the locality, returned to his vessel about 11 or 12 o’clock on Friday night
when he accidentally fell into the tidal waters of Ballinacurra Quay, where the
vessel was lying. His body was found on
Saturday at about 9.30 in low water, between the vessel and the quay. Which would go to show that he missed his
footing…Deceased who bore an excellent character, was aged about 35 and was
unmarried, his native place being Dungarvan.
John Young in his Maritime & General History of Dungarvan
has the following details on this schooner:
Built at Ardrossan
by Barr in 1862. She was then owned by
Fisher & Co, registered in Barrow and Lancaster. The crew were: Captain Whelan, Patrick
Christopher and Captain Gibbons. Her dimensions
were 80ftx20ftx10ft. While based in
Dungarvan she was owned by the Moloney family.