The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-28 00:00:00

The Wreck of the Armenian.

The following are the particulars so far as they have yet
been ascertained of the catastrophe upon the Arklow
Bank:—

"It is my painful duty (writes the correspondent of the
Dublin Daily Express) to record the total loss of the fine
iron-built steamer Armenian, of some thousand tons regis-
ter, bound with mails, passengers, and a valuable cargo
from Liverpool to Sierra Leone and other ports of South
Africa, which took place on Wednesday on the Arklow sand-
banks, about seven miles S.S.E. of the town, on the coast
of Wicklow, giving those banks their name. Rumours of a
most painful and, of course, much exaggerated nature were
rife on Thursday along the Wicklow coast line as to the loss
of this steamer, it being variously stated that from 60 to
100 lives had been lost off Arklow in consequence of the
wreck. Although the catastrophe has not been of at all so
fatal a character, a large amount of property, and the loss
of certainly four, if not more, lives has resulted from it.
From personal inquiries, instituted on Thursday afternoon,
in the vicinity of Arklow, the following particulars are given,
and may be relied on for their accuracy. It appears that on
Wednesday, at noon, a large steamer was, from the coast-
guard station at Arklow, first discovered aground on the
banks at the distance already mentioned. Chief-boatman
Coghlan and a crew of the coastguard at once launched
their boat, and put off in the direction of the stranded ship.
Approaching her after a long and rough pull they found
her to be the steamer Armenian, totally deserted, and, at
the time, hull under water, the upper part of the deck-
house and her funnel and masts only being above the water
line. Observing a signal of distress flying from the mast
of the Arklow light-ship, which was moored not far off,
they pulled for that vessel. Here the full and sad narrative
was first made known by the solitary light-keeper, whose
fellows had left him, as it transpired, on a mission of mercy
and to meet with a watery grave. It appeared the Arme-
nian had left Liverpool on the 23d inst., with some sixty
persons, consisting of passengers and orew; the former four
in number. On the 24th, having touched at Holyhead on
the preceding evening, she took the Arklow Bank, the
weather being thick, and a strong tidal current running at
the time. She fired, as reported, some 300 signals, which
appear only to have been observed from the Arklow light-
ship. Being desirous of offering assistance, and seeing that
no help was approaching from the shore, the light-ship
boat, manned by lightkeepers Coghlan, Waring (of Ring-
send), Cunningham (who was about to be married), and a
boatman from Kingstown, whose name has not been given,
put off ; but a heavy surf running at the time over the
banks, the boat was soon capsized, and all her crew were
drowned within sight of their companion left in charge of
the light-ship. A sad incident in this melancholy scene is
that one of the drowned crew of the light-ship's boat was
the son of the chief boatman, Coghlan, to whom the news
of the catastrophe was first officially reported on his arri-
val at the vessel. After the capsizing of the boat, and the
deplorable loss of her crew while manfully striving to save
life, a steamer hove in sight, and proceeded at once to ren-
der every assistance, conveying by means of boats the pas-
sengers and crew of the Armenian on board the light-ship,
where every exertion was made with her limited means of
accommodation to render the condition of the unfortunates
as comfortable as possible. They were afterwards taken
off by the Lady Eglinton, a London steamer, and landed
at Wexford."