Clonmel Herald, 7 August 1839
Loss of the Sloop Lady Curraghmore, and Six Lives
On Saturday last the sloop Curraghmore, of 47 tons,
sailed from Dungarvan, with cattle and passengers for Swansea, and a t 10
o’clock the same evening, while off the Smalls, she shipped a sea and was
thrown on her beam ends. The crew, consisting of three men and the master, used
every effort to right her by shifting her ballast, but to no avail; in a very
short time she filled and went down.
Fortunately for the crew and passengers, (14 in
number) they had left her prior to her foundering, in the vessel’s boat, and
after contending some time with the fury of the sea and wind, they were
discovered by the steamship, City of Limerick, bound for Plymouth, when she
hove-to to take them on board. But a more melancholy tale remains to be told.
Immediately on the boat getting alongside the steamer,
two seamen, four passengers, and a child 18 months old, were taken on board
her; but we are pained to add that whilst a seaman was attempting to help the
mother on board, the steamer lurched over, struck the boat with her gangway
ladder, and precipitated the whole into the water. Great and praiseworthy
exertions were made by those on board the steamer to save their lives, but in a
few moments the father, mother, and brother (5 years old) of the little child
saved, with two others sank to rise no more. The master of the foundered
vessel, who was in the boat when she upset, having been in the water 20
minutes, was saved with great difficulty. The surviving child, the master, and
others, on arriving here [Plymouth], were conveyed to the workhouse, where
every possible attention is paid to them. Neither the vessel nor cargo was
insured.
