The Drowning at Westport Quay (June 14th 1894) (1941)

There was big grave in Kildownet, the biggest one in it. You’ll see it with the iron railin’s around it. That’s where the people that were drowned at the quay at Westport are buried, to Scotland they were going ‘the craythurs, they left Achill in two hookers on a fine morning about the middle of June to go to Westport to meet the Glasgors ship there, when they were comin’ in drawin on the quay they saw the ship anchored out a bit waitin’for the tide. When the hookers were near the ship one of them was closer then the nearest one and ather people in her went across to the side of the hooker to have a good view of the ship. It was calm morning’ but at that minute a little sharp squall came the other side and the sail struck against the mast and because the weight was all on that side and the force of the wind too, the hooker capsized and out goes everyone that was on deck. When the sail struck the water and got wet the hooker couldn’t right hersel’ and the sail kept the people that were under it down. They had no chance at all but some others that weren’t under the sail were saved. All the bodies were found because there was plenty of boats and it wasn’t very deep. The bodies were brought into Westport quay and laid out in a shed for the night. I believe if they were rightly attended to that some of them would be saved, because when they came the next day with the coffins some of the bodies were in a different position. They must have stirred or moved durin’ the night, thirty two altogether that was drownded and they are all buried in the one grave in Kildownet, I saw the hookers goin’up in the morning and I was with the funeral and indeed it was a poor sight, no wan else was buried inside railin’s since, although relation’s of the people that are buried in it but the priest wouldn’t allow them, and he was right too. The Healy man that owned the hooker was from Belfarsad below the near the Sound. Some of his people are there yet.