Exciting Journey
Thanks to a contact on Ancestry.com I am going on a journey into the past !
Daniel Stowell, one of my grandma’s brothers, was Quartermaster aboard the SS Dundalk which was torpedoed by UB90 on 14th October 1918, while crossing from Liverpool to Dundalk Only 12 members of her crew survived - the rest, including Daniel (age 33yrs), were drowned. There is a stained glass window in St Patrick’s church in their memory.
The County Museum in Dundalk is hosting an event in October this year to mark the centenary and have been tracking down relatives and friends to take part. I have just booked my adventure!
I fly from Manchester to Dublin 13th Oct, stay there over night, train to Dundalk the following day. Not sure what form the ‘event’ is going to take - but am sure wine will be involved - so have booked into a hotel there for the night. Back to Dublin the next day. Two nights there to catch up with family and friends (and probably a little more wine) before flying home again 18th Oct.
It is a long way off - but am excited about it already !
Here is young Daniel - in his band uniform - he was a good trombone player apparently.
S S Dundalk
[quote] SS Dundalkwas built for Dundalk & Newry Steam Packet Co. in 1899 by A.& J. Inglis (glashow) and was a 794grt defensively-armed British merchantship. On the 14th October 1918 when on route from Liverpool for Dundlak she was captured by German submarines UB-123 & U-905 when 5 miles NNW from Skerries, Anglesey. 21 lives lost, including Master. Owned by S. J. Cocks, Dundalk.[quote]
[quote] In a strange quirk of fate, quite a number of the regular crew, all from Dundalk, had influenza in the week prior to the disaster and were taken from the SS Dundalk on 8th October with replacement crew members drafted in in their stead. For some of those who were removed due to this bout of ill-health it was not to be a lucky case of cheating fate - quite a few ultimately succumbed to influenza - which was almost certainly the same strain which would later be infamously known as 'Spanish Flu' and eventually go on to kill between 50 to 100 million people globally that year, in what was one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.
Twelve of the crew did manage to get two lifeboats launched before the SS Dundalk went down. They suffered a horrifying 17 hours adrift at sea, eventually being rescued by the S.S. Douglas and the trawler Stormcock.[quote]