This underwater room shows the wrecks of

SS Iberian

November 21 1885 IBERIAN  2930 tons  390’ x 37.2’ x 29.3’  350 h.p.  Compound inverted engines.  Owned by F. Leyland & Co.  Built 1867. From Boston to Liverpool.  Sank in thick fog half a mile west of Bird Island, Dunmanus Bay.  Crew of 54 saved in boats.  Vessel broke up 15.10.1886  Cargo: Cattle

SS City of Rome

CITY OF ROME 1881
8,415 gross tons, length 560.2ft x beam 52.3ft, clipper bows, three funnels, four masts (rigged for sail), iron hull, single screw, speed 16 knots, accommodation for 271-1st, 250-2nd and 810-steerage class passengers. Built by Barrow Shipbuilding Co., Barrow, she was launched on 14th Jun.1881 for the Inman Line and started her maiden voyage on 13th Oct.1881 when she left Liverpool for Queenstown and New York. After five voyages, she transferred to the Anchor Line in 1882 but continued on the same route. In 1891 she was refitted to accommodate 75-1st, 250-2nd and 1,000-steerage class passengers and transferred to Glasgow - Moville - New York sailings. In Sep.1898 she repatriated 1,690 Spanish troops from Portsmouth, USA to Santander after the Spanish-American War and commenced her final Glasgow - Moville - New York - Glasgow voyage on 26th Sep.1901. In 1902 she was scrapped in Germany. [North Atlantic Seaway, vol.1,p.243 by N.R.P.Bonsor] On one of her voyages she ran aground on the Fastnet Rock, but floated off. A lucky escape!

SS Stephen Whitney

November 10 1847  STEVE WHITNEY Packet Ship 1034 Tons Red Star Line of Thos and Jos. Sands & Co, Liverpool. Built in New York, 1640.  Loss of 100 lives.  Wrecked off Cape Clear.  The captain mistook Crookhaven light for the Ols Head of Kinsale.dLed to the building of the Fastnet Rock Lighthouse. Cargo: Apples, cheese, bills of exchange.

Underwater film taken round the Mizen by Derek Bolton

Fish in the Atlantic Ocean round the Mizen  including salmon, mackerel, skate, cod, monkfish and Moray eel

A few of the hundreds of ships (a few named, but many sank without trace) that foundered on the rocks or sank were:

12.03.1889 Oswestry 2419 tons 300’ owned by Sivewright, Bacon & Co. Built by E Withy & Co Hartlepool in 1888. From Newport & Norfolk VA to Manchester, wrecked in fog on north side of Mizen Head. Lies between the Bohemian and the Memphis. Capt. Wilson and crew of 24 saved by locals. Cargo: Cotton, Deal & Indian Maize.

22.12.1908 Irada 8124 tons 501’ built by JH Wellsford & Co 1900 Southwest Gale & Fog. Caught between Island and Mainland at north side of Mizen Head. Irish Lights workers building the fog station helped survivors. Capt. Arthur Wellesley Roberts and five crew died and were buried in Kilmoe graveyard overlooking Barleycove. Cargo: 21,000 cotton bales and other goods such as copper ingots valued at £250,000. The Lloyds agent at Bere where much of the cargo washed up, contacted Capt. Hugh Williams, the owners representative and a boat the Perseverance was hired from Cork to carry the cargo to a larger steamer for transport to Liverpool. The propellor of the SS Irada was raised by West Cork scuba divers and presented to Mizen Tourism Co-operative Society Ltd for display.

Irada in port

30.07.1915 Iberian  While Iberian was travelling from Manchester, United Kingdom to Boston, United States with a general cargo. She was spotted by SM U-28 in the Atlantic Ocean 9 nautical miles (17 km) south west of the Fastnet Rock, Ireland. SM U-28 fired a torpedo at the Iberian which hit her stern killing 7 crew. Iberian sank stern first beneath the waves, officers from the U-boat reported that the steamer sank so swiftly that its bow stuck up almost vertically into the air before finally sinking shortly after the attack. 63 people escaped in lifeboats. (Wikipedia)

02.01.1917 Nestorian 6000 tons 400’ built by Hawthorn Leslie, owned by F Leyland. Wrecked off S/W of Cape Clear near Port Na Long on the Bullane Rock. From Galveston to Liverpool 79 of 80 crew saved by Daly & O’Driscoll families. Cargo: Cotton, Steel & Shell Heads.

29.09.1985 Taurima pleasure yacht owned by Charles Haughey. Wrecked below the Mizen light. Saved by light keepers; Richard Foran, Acting Principal Keeper, who was commended by the Commissioners of Irish Lights (CIL) for his role in the rescue.

Credits:

www.wrecksite.eu

www.irishwrecksonline.net