page_title: Cymric (schooner)
section_title: Second World War
hierarchical_section_title: Cymric (schooner) / Second World War
caption_attribution_description: IRISH MERCHANT SHIPS LOST IN WORLD WAR TWO. MUNSTER (Captain William James Paisley) mined and sunk in Liverpool Bay 2 February 1940-no casualties CITY OF LIMERICK (Captain, R. Ferguson) sunk by air attack 700 miles west of Ushant. 15 july 1940-2 dead MEATH (Captain T. MacFarlane) mined and sunk off Holyhead . 16 august 1940-1 dead LUIMNEACH (Captain E. Jones) sunk by gunfire from U-46 in Bay of Biscay 4 september 1940-no casualites KERRY HEAD (Captain C. Drummond) bombed and sunk with all hands off Cape Clear. 22 october 1940-12 dead ARDMORE (Captain T. Ford) missing on passage Cork to Fishguard. 11 november 1940-24 dead ISOLDA (Captain A. Bestic) bombed and sunk by German aircraft off Wex ford Coast 19 december 1940- 6 dead, 7 wounded INNISFALLEN (Captain G. Rrth) mined and sunk in River Mersey. 21 december 1940-4 dead ST. FINTAN (Captain N. Hendry) bombed and sunk by German aircraft of Welsh Coast. 22 march 1941-9 dead CLONLARA (Captain J. Reynolds) torpedoed and sunk whilst in convoy 0G71 in Bay of Biscay 22 august 1941-11 dead CITY OF WATERFORD (Captain T. Alpin) sunk whilst in convoy 0G74 in North Atlantic. 19 september 1941-5 dead CITY OF BREMEN (Captain G. Bryan) sunk by German aircraft in Bay of Biscay 2 june 1942-no casualites IRISH PINE (Captain M. O'Neill) torpedoed and sunk in North Atlantic by U-608. 15 november1942-33 dead KYLECLARE (Captain A. Hamilton) torpedoed and sunk in Bay of Biscay by J-456 23 february 1943-18 dead IRISH OAK (Capatin E. Jones) torpedoed and sunk in North Atlantic by U607 15 may 1942-no casualites CYMRIC (Captain C. CASSEDY) missing on passage Ardrossan to Lisbon. 22 march 1944-11 dead
context_page_description: Cymric was a British and Irish schooner, built in 1893. She joined the South American trade in the fleet of Arklow, Ireland, in 1906. She served as a British Q-ship during the First World War; she failed to sink any German U-boats, but did sink a British submarine in error.
  After the war, she returned to the British and, later, the Irish merchant service. In Ringsend, Ireland, she collided with a tram, her bowsprit smashing through the tram's windows. In 1944, during the Second World War, sailing as a neutral, she vanished without trace with the loss of eleven lives.
context_section_description: At the outbreak of World War II, there were only 56 ships on the Irish register; 14 of those were Arklow schooners. Sailing as neutrals, these schooners played a vital role in keeping Ireland supplied.
  Cymric was charted by Betsons to travel to Portugal. Betsons imported agricultural equipment and fertilisers from America. In November 1939, Roosevelt signed the Fourth Neutrality Act forbidding American ships from entering the "war zone", which was defined as a line drawn from Spain to Iceland. Cargoes intended for Ireland were shipped to Portugal. With cargoes "piling up on the quays of Lisbon awaiting shipment", Betsons chartered Cymric to travel to Lisbon to collect these cargoes. Setting sail from Ireland, Cymric would carry food to the United Kingdom. There she would collect the British export of coal and carry it to Portugal. In Lisbon, Cymric loaded the awaiting American cargo and brought it back to Ireland.
  In October 1943, she had a total refit in Ringsend Dockyard. On what was to be her final voyage, on 23 February 1944, she left Ardrossan in Scotland where she loaded a cargo of coal for Lisbon. She was sighted off Dublin on the following day – that was her last sighting. No wreckage was ever found. She might have hit a mine, been sunk by a U-Boat, or been driven by a gale into the 'prohibited area' of Bay of Biscay and been attacked and sunk by Allied aircraft enforcing the blockade. MV Kerlogue was fortunate to survive such an attack by the RAF in that area.
  Neither the Cymric or her crew of eleven was ever seen again. When Dublin's docklands were redeveloped, a new residential street was named 'Cymric Road' 53.345°N 6.21514°W. It is not far from where she collided with the tram. On the third Sunday of every November, those who lost their lives on neutral Irish ships, including the Cymric, are remembered.
caption: Memorial in Dublin, with the names of those lost on neutral Irish ships, including Cymric, during World War II
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