Cymric (schooner)

Cymric
History
United Kingdom
NameCymric
BuilderWilliam Thomas and Sons
Launched1893
Ireland
OwnerCaptain Richard Hall of Arklow
Acquired1906
United Kingdom
Acquiredc.1915
Ireland
OwnerHalls of Arklow
Acquiredc.1919
FateVanished with all hands in 1944 during World War II
General characteristics
Class and typeIron barquentine
Tonnage228 grt
Length123 ft (37 m)
Beam24 ft (7.3 m)
Draught10 ft 8 in (3.25 m)[1]
PropulsionSail, Auxiliary motor fitted in World War I
Sail planThree masted

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.[2]

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.[3] In 1944, during the Second World War, sailing as a neutral, she vanished without trace with the loss of eleven lives.

  1. ^ Forde 1988, p. 68
  2. ^ "The Cymric in Peace and War (The extraordinary story of a small ship acquired by the Royal Navy as a Q-Ship during WWI and achieved notoriety by colliding with a tram in Dublin and sinking one of its own submarines)". Medal Society of Ireland. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
  3. ^ Murphy, Francis J (December 1979). "Dublin Trams (1872–1959)". Dublin Historical Record. 33 (1). Old Dublin Society: 2–9. JSTOR 30104169. the unique accident which occurred at Ringsend in 1928 when a D.U.T.C. tram was in collision with a ship The Arklow schooner, Cymric