List of Famous Shipwrecks in Ireland
Sea lanes are dotted with famous and not so famous wrecks of ships that have sunk through the ages. The waters around Ireland have their fair share, perhaps more, due to at least three reasons.
The Spanish Armada and English fleet in battle.Source: http://general-history.com/the-spanish-armada
Why are there so many Shipwrecks around Ireland?
In these pages you can read about some of the more famous ones.
- Some were warships. You can read, for example, about the Spanish galleass, Girona, or the famous and mighty Trinidad Valencera, both part of the great Spanish Armada that was defeated in the English Channel in 1588. Both ships survived the encounter with the English only to meet their end off the turbulent Irish coast.
The Drake was a less dramatic but also noteworthy loss just outside Belfast Lough, in 1778.
Another ship by the same name (HMS Drake) was sunk on Rathlin Island by the Germans in 1917, and still sits there, a favorite site for divers.
And there is, of course, the SS Laurentic a merchant ship converted to a an armed merchant cruiser which sunk in 1915 after hitting two mines. Here is the list (more coming soon):
The Galleass Girona
The Trinidad Valencera
HMS Drake
SS Laurentic
The Lusitania. Source: http://www.greatships.net/lusitania.html
The more famous one was probably the passenger liner RMS Lusitania which was torpedoed and sunk with great loss of life, turning perhaps public opinion against Germany and helping the US to join World War I against Germany.
A less know but very sad loss was that of the The Exmouth, which sunk a day after leaving Londonderry with a group of immigrants bound for the US, a large percentage being children. Here is a brief list with more coming soon:
RMS Carpathia
RMS Empress of Britain
RMS Lusitania
The Exmouth
Read some Quick Titanic Facts.
Read the Story of the Titanic’s Construction
The Titanic 1912 Sinking Part 1
Titanic 1912 Sinking Part 2
Titanic 1912 Sinking Part 3
The Mystery Ship that could have saved more people
Titanic 1912 Sinking: The Passengers
The Survivors
The Titanic Band that played music to the end.
Discovering and exploring the Titanic wreck.
This list of famous shipwrecks is by no means complete (and neither can it ever be). We will be adding pages and make this site a comprehensive guide to shipwrecks of the coasts of Ireland.If you fascinated by shipwrecks, do come back!
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