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Princess Victoria , sailing from Stranraer to Larne in the early morning of 31 Jan 1953 , sank 5 miles off the Donaghadee coast mid afternnon .
Remenber the day vividly , never experienced such a storm in my life , saw flares etc but nobody knew what was happening .
Initial morse code ( ? still in 1953 ) message located the ship in distress off the Scottish coast , but obviously she continued to travel towards Northern Ireland , rescue ships and lifeboats were looking in the wrong place .
Over 70% of those on board ( 180 set out) perished , worst peacetime ferry disaster in these isles at the time , no women or children survived , seemingly they were first off but the lifeboats were swamped and smashed or sank .
Lots of lessons learned from the event , should not have left harbour from what I remember of the day , and it affected our psyche in NI a lot .
Not the only disaster that day in terms of lives lost throughout these isles , around 500 in total over a period of days mainly in England due to floods and high winds .
Mother and father of a storm it was , still remember myself being bent nearly double into the wind , guess the "Big Wind " of a century or so before in Ireland may have been similar .
Shows you dont mess with nature if you have an option .
Remenber the day vividly , never experienced such a storm in my life , saw flares etc but nobody knew what was happening .
Initial morse code ( ? still in 1953 ) message located the ship in distress off the Scottish coast , but obviously she continued to travel towards Northern Ireland , rescue ships and lifeboats were looking in the wrong place .
Over 70% of those on board ( 180 set out) perished , worst peacetime ferry disaster in these isles at the time , no women or children survived , seemingly they were first off but the lifeboats were swamped and smashed or sank .
Lots of lessons learned from the event , should not have left harbour from what I remember of the day , and it affected our psyche in NI a lot .
Not the only disaster that day in terms of lives lost throughout these isles , around 500 in total over a period of days mainly in England due to floods and high winds .
Mother and father of a storm it was , still remember myself being bent nearly double into the wind , guess the "Big Wind " of a century or so before in Ireland may have been similar .
Shows you dont mess with nature if you have an option .
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Only 5 miles off the coast ! Very sad story, Kelly. Hadn't heard of it before. At least today we're better equipped to prevent/limit such disasters.
True reb , helicopter ( assuming it could fly in those conditions ) would have spotted the boat in about 10 minutes , and the boat was in distress for about 4 hours before it sank , albeit listing and un-navigable essentially for most of that 4 hours . Power of the elements though .
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