This article is from page 3 of the 2014-03-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
THE long lost remains of a British ship which sank off the Clare coast almost 120 years ago, were uncovered over the weekend in Liscannor Bay.
The ship, named the Elizabeth McLea, sank in rough seas in December of 1894 when its anchor became dislodged, causing it to drift in a heavy storm and run aground on rocks just off Lahinch beach.
The remains of the wooden hull of the ship, which have somehow survived in Liscannor Bay for the past 119 years were uncovered over the weekend. It is understood that a combination of the recent storms and high tides over the weekend, worked to uncover the remains of ship.
Heavy storms in January and February have transformed the layout of the beach at Lahinch – moving thousands of tonnes of sand and exposing large areas of rock.
The ship was spotted by local man Patrick O’Dwyer, who is a green keeper at the nearby Lahinch Golf Course.
“We were working away on the golf course and we noticed what looked like flags sticking up from the sand. If you look from the end of the Lahinch Promenade, the ship is located about 200 yards north and about 100 yards out to sea, so it isn’t far off from the main beach at all,” he said.
“We’re not sure how it became uncovered, but it must have something to do with the tides and the way that all the sand shifts and gets moved around.
“You can actually get relatively close to it. The sand becomes very shallow around the ship itself so you’d want to be careful because it might give away and that would be quite dangerous, but you can get relatively close to it.”
The ship sank on December 28, three days after Christmas Day 1894. The storm was so great that the crew were forced to climb the ships rigging to avoid being swept overboard by the storm. When the storm began to ease the crew were able to make it back to the deck before using ropes to winch there way into the water and finally ashore.
The Elizabeth McLea was in Liscannor Bay collecting a cargo of Doonagore Stone for transport back to Bristol. The Clare flag stone was a prize cargo in the 1800s and some is understood to have been used in both Buckingham Palace and the White House.
According to locals the ship has resurfaced in the past, but this is the first time that the Elizabeth McLea has been visible for at least a decade.