February 15th this year marks the centenary of a lesser-known incident in Irish maritime history. A cargo steamer owned by the Trasmediterránea company of Valencia, the Cirilo Amorós, was bound for Liverpool with a general cargo but came to an unexpected end on the mid-Waterford coast.
The ship was battling through very stormy conditions when, about 8km off the Irish coast, the rudder broke and Capt Joaquín Herrera and his crew were left at the mercy of the sea, which drove them towards land in the pitch dark. Disorientated, their spirits must have sunk further when the ship gave a tremendous shudder and they realised they were on the rocks.
It seems that at least one crew member thought his end had come. A year after the wreck, a piece of fruit box was recovered from the sea a few kilometres along the coast. On it was a message in indelible pencil: “SS Cirilo Amorós. Sinking. Good-bye all.”
Local farmer Will O’Brien (grandfather of Breda O’Brien of this parish) woke before dawn to the sound of a siren coming from Ballyvooney, down the hill from his home. Guessing it was a ship in distress, he roused his family to get help and hurried into the storm. His suspicions were confirmed when a rocket appeared in the sky, followed by two more.
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The Cirilo Amorós was aground with its bow almost touching the cliff. From the clifftop O’Brien could see the crew gathered on deck with their life jackets on. The storm was still raging and he later described how “the seas were flinging themselves over the stern and along the decks with a terrible fury”.
The crew had already attempted to lower a lifeboat but it was promptly smashed to pieces by the storm. O’Brien signalled to Capt Herrera to try sending a line ashore tied to a lifebuoy. O’Brien’s watching offspring feared their father would drown as he waded into the surf to fetch the line, but the sea co-operated and he made it back on to the beach. Another man had arrived on the scene by now and the two of them hauled the line ashore and up on to the cliff.
O’Brien’s neighbour Jack O’Keeffe was on his way to work when he saw the ship, and made haste to the nearby village of Stradbally to fetch gardaí. The line was followed by a cable which was made fast on the clifftop and the crew were hauled ashore one by one in a breeches buoy by a combined force of gardaí and civilians.
No doubt immensely relieved to be on dry land after their ordeal, the sailors shared flagons of wine with their rescuers. One man indulged so freely that he had to be brought home prone on a donkey cart, to discover that his wife had given birth to a baby girl.
The crew were accommodated in houses around Stradbally and for two nights there was free wine, music and Spanish dancing in the village.
Only one local could speak the men’s language, a sailor named Tom Horseman who had learned Spanish in South America. He had a reputation as a teller of tall tales, and his linguistic claim was treated with scepticism locally, until along came this almost miraculous opportunity to prove it.
Salvaging the ship’s cargo was a slow process as it had to be brought ashore to the beach on a cable. Drawing the cargo from Ballyvooney up the hill to Stradbally provided much welcome employment locally.
Damaged cases of oranges and onions were dumped into the sea. Oranges were a novel fruit in Stradbally in 1926 and the sight of them bobbing on the tide is still remarked on.
Salt water in the hold rendered the cargo of rice unfit for human consumption, so it was sold as pig feed. A workman on a local farm remarked that when the pigs there were slaughtered, they were already cured bacon.
The Cirilo Amorós was subsequently cut up for scrap but the base of the vessel can still be seen at low tide.
The incident is commemorated in a song published in the Dungarvan Observer a couple of months after the rescue. The author was possibly local balladeer Jack Daly, paterfamilias of a creative dynasty that includes one Kate Bush – no mean songwriter herself.
A century on, people still talk about the wreck of the Spanish ship. Pictures of the vessel hang in many local homes and one house is even named after it. To mark the centenary, an information sign is to be unveiled at Ballyvooney Cove at 2.30pm on February 15th. Descendants of the ship’s captain intend to travel from Spain for the occasion, the first time any of them will have visited the scene of the wreck.
