Some were grabbing their companions in order to try and save themselves. The water was a struggling, screaming mass of human beings. Edward O’Malley later gave a detailed, and very eloquent, statement of events:Īll of a sudden as it came nearer it changed course and we were stuck … as we saw it capsize. Two Westport youths, Daniel Burke and Edward O’Malley, both 17 years old, had sailed out to The Elm with messages when the drama began. The passengers were thrown into the water but worse, the boat came after them and many were trapped under the large canvas sails which became heavy and impenetrable once wet.Īt the time the SS Elm was grounded, waiting for the tide to refloat it. They rushed to one side of the hooker to get a better view, making the boat unstable, and before the captain could take action a gust of wind caught the sails and the boat capsized. Galway Hooker (not The Victory)Īs The Victory approached Westport Quay its passengers caught their first sight of the large steamer, the SS Elm, which would take them to Scotland. In later testimony, the captain of one of the other hookers said there were so many people on The Victory that he didn’t know how they could all fit. Such was the enthusiasm among the travellers that the first hooker to load – The Victory – was carrying 126 people when it set off. A hooker is a large wooden-hulled sailing boat, typically used for fishing or cargo. We can only imagine the atmosphere at the quayside as the youngsters waited for the currachs to take them the short hop to one of four hookers which would bring them across Clew Bay to Westport, where they would transfer to a steamship to Scotland. These were purchased on credit to be repaid when the migrant workers returned later in the year, so families needed the income from as many working children as they could send. In 1894 it is believed that an unusually large number of first-timers were travelling, due to a poor potato harvest at home the previous year which forced families to purchase seed potatoes in the spring as their own were rotten. This annual event would see the young people of Achill travel to the west of Scotland to stay and work for up to six months during late spring, summer and into the autumn. About 400 people, many of them teenagers, were about to set off on a journey to Scotland to work ‘tattie hoking’, or picking potatoes.

They had traveled from villages all over Achill Island and the Curraun Peninsula. On the morning of 14th June 1894 a large crowd assembled at Darby’s Point, Cloughmore, at the south-east corner of Achill.

32 Achill People Drowned at Westport Quay

Westport clew bay