The Cache
This is a very short multi. The final is less than 100m from the listed coordinates. The cache itself is a micro. The listed coordinates will bring you to a sign in the grounds of the Kilwirra Medevial Churchyard. It details a martime accident that occured on 3 November 1916 at the entrance to Carlingford Lough which resulted in the loss of 97 lives.
There are two ways to get the final coordinates.
The easy way is to enter the name of the person who unveiled the sign (2 words) into the checker below and you will be given the coordinates.
If you have no internet access there is method two. Look at the date the sign was unveiled and write it out as an eight digit number. DDMMYYYY. Let these numbers equal ABCDEFGH. The Final is located at
N 53 59. C(H-G)B W 6 09.EH(B-C)
There is no checker for this method.
The Accident
On the evening of the 3rd November 1916 the SS Connemara left Greenore at 2000. Approximately .5 miles beyond the Carlingford bar she met the SS Retriever. This channel is very narrow being less than 300m wide. Both vessels were showing dimmed lights due to U-Boats.
The watch at the Haulbowline lighthouse, seeing the ships too close for comfort, fired off rockets in warning. Unforunately weather conditions were very poor and this had caused the Retriever's cargo to list. Fighting both wind, tide and cargo inertia she hit the Connemara on the port side, penetrating her hull to the funnel. Although the Retriever reversed its engines and swung wide, the Connemara had been substantially ripped below the waterline on the port side from bow to the middle of the ship. She sank within minutes, her boilers exploding on contact with the cold water.
The Retriever, with her bow stove in, took about 20 minutes to sink about 200 yards from the Connemara. Her boilers also exploded on contact with the water.
97 lives were lost that night with only James Boyle, a fireman on the Retriever surviving. He was 21 at the time and lived another 50 years. Many of the bodies were so badly burned from the boiler explosions and couldnt be identified. The unidentified were buried in a mass grave in Kilkeel.
Both ships had previously been involved in accidents which resulted in other ships being sunk. The Connemara sunk the Liverpool vessel Marquis of Bute on 20 March 1910 while the Retriever sunk the Lista at Garston dock on 31 August 1912.
Further information on the incident.
Kilwirra Church
The Church grounds are interesting enough to have a look at while you are there. It contains the ruins of a 15th/16th Century Church. Link to information about the Church