Cymric ( schooner ) Cymric was a British and Irish schooner , built in 1893 . Initially she was in the South American trade . She joined 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 - boat s , 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 . Arklow schooners . Arklow , Ireland has a long history of ship - owning . According to local tradition , it extends back to the export of tin and copper by the Phoenicians . The fleet was locally owned , managed , mastered and manned . Historically each ship was an individual enterprise , each divided into 64 shares . A captain would probably have a 25 % interest in his ship : that is 16 shares . The owner listed in documents was the managing owner , not necessarily the beneficial owner . The Arklow shipowners cooperated . They established their own mutual insurance company . A century ago , ownership became concentrated . In 1966 Tyrrell and Hall formed an umbrella company to operate their ships : Arklow Shipping . By November 2011 they had a modern fleet of about 45 ships . Early career . Two Arklow schooners , " Cymric " and " Gaelic " , were built by William Thomas in Amlwch . " Cymric " was launched in March 1893 . " Gaelic " was launched in March 1898 . They were built as barquentine s , In Arklow , the preferred sail configuration was the double top sailed schooner . In 1906 , " Cymric " joined the Arklow fleet and was rigged as a schooner . " Cymric " was an iron schooner . She had a shallow draught of only 10 . 8 feet , three wooden masts , no poop deck , a flaring bow , a round counter - stern and very square yards on her fore mast . She was built by the Thomas yard for their own fleet . Her early days , under Captain Robert Jones , were spent in the South American trade running from Runcorn to Gibraltar and on to the Rio Grande , docking at the Brazilian port of Porto Alegre . In 1906 she was sold to Captain Richard Hall of Arklow . The new century , 1900 , saw an expansion in the Arklow fleet , as larger iron - hulled schooners were purchased . Job Tyrrell purchased " Detlef Wagner " and " Maggie Williams " , while Job Hall acquired " Patrician " , " Celtic " and " Cymric " . In the main , all of these ships engaged in the Spanish wine trade until " Detlef Wagner " was sunk by " UC - 72 " on 28 May 1917 First World War . Three Arklow schooners were requisitioned by the Admiralty to be used as Q - ship s , they were : " Cymric " , " Gaelic " and " Mary B Mitchell " . They sailed the Southwest Approaches , masquerading as merchantmen , inviting attack by U - boat s . Their guns were concealed , when a U - boat approached , a " panic party " would abandon the ship , while the gun crews waited for their target to come into range . The expectation was that the U - boat would approach the apparently abandoned ship and would be surprised and sunk when the guns were revealed and opened fire . Great successes were claimed and medals awarded . " Mary B Mitchell " claimed to have sunk two U - boats in the same day . Post - war analysis did not confirm these claims . After the war , it was concluded that Q - ships were greatly over - rated , diverting skilled seamen from other duties without sinking enough U - boats to justify the strategy . " Cymric " did sink a submarine ; unfortunately it was what we now term ' friendly fire ' . On 15 October 1918 , , a " J " - class submarine was on the surface outside her base , Blythe when she was spotted by " Cymric " which mistook her ' J6 ' marking for ' U6 ' . " Cymric " opened fire , " J6 " tried to signal , but the signalman was killed . " J6 " fled into a fog bank , but " Cymric " located " J6 " again , and sank her , with the loss of 14 lives . An order under the Official Secrets Act prohibited mention of this incident until 1969 . Between the wars . After the war , she was disarmed and returned to Halls of Arklow . The auxiliary engine remained . By now large steamers were more profitable than sailing ships for ocean voyages . However , within Ireland transport was becoming more difficult . The neglect of the networks during World War I was compounded by destruction during the war of independence and the subsequent civil war . It was more cost - effective to transport goods by sea around the coast rather than using internal road or rail . " Cymric " had a new career : transporting malt from ports such as Ballinacurra , New Ross and Wexford to Dublin . It was on one of these voyages that she collided with a tram . " Cymric " was waiting for Mac Machon Bridge , a bascule bridge , at the entrance to the Inner Basin of the Grand Canal Dock to open , when a gust of wind propelled her towards the bridge . and her bowsprit speared tram number 233 . There are many versions of this story . Details differ , including the date , which varies from 12 February 1927 or 1928 to 21 December 1943 Research by Dr Edward Bourke established that there were two separate incidents : on Tuesday 29 November 1921 , " Cymric " did , indeed , collide with a tram . On 21 December 1943 , " Happy Harry " , a different Arklow schooner , collided with the same bridge . No one was hurt in either incident . " Cymric " was witness to a sad event that would change the way lighthouses and lightships are administered in Ireland . At the time , they were directly controlled from the UK by Trinity House , who removed a lightship from the Arklow Bank . On 19 February 1931 , the " Julia " en route from Glasgow to Newhaven , grounded on the Arklow Bank and was wrecked with the loss of the crew of five , two of whom were from Arklow . " Cymric " , with her shallow draught , discovered the tragedy two days later . It became a political issue . In 1935 , the ' Irish Lights Commissioners ( Adaptation ) Order ' was made . It is the legislative basis for the Commissioners of Irish Lights . On Christmas Eve 1933 , " Cymric " grounded on a bank in Wexford Harbour . Rope , which had been used the previous day in an attempt to re - float another vessel , fouled her propeller . She spent five days aground and was eventually refloated with the aid of a diver and the removal of some barrels of malt from her cargo . Second World War . 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 . On 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 , was sunk by a U - Boat or was driven by a gale into the ' prohibited area ' of Bay of Biscay and was attacked and sunk by Allied aircraft enforcing the blockade . 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 ' . 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 .