User:Rusheenduff

A monument to the sailors who lost their lives stands in Aillebrack, Co. Galway.

Tragedy:

A crew, including sailors named Trudeay, Iyle and Vigeant, departed Grenier field in Norfolk, Virginia on Thursday 10  of September.The flight to Iceland was uneventful untilt he engine lost power and crash-landed in the sea. The sailors managed to get on a life-raft but four of them died. Finally they drifted into Bunowen Beach, near Ballyconneely. They looked around slyne head, climbing over rocks and wet seaweed. They finally arrived at a cottage and knocked on the door. The cottage was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Mc Namara but they were too scared to open the door to two strangers from the sea. They reached another cottage owned by Michael Conneely. He held the two crew members at bay with pitchforks until he was satisfied that they were not a threat. Eventually they let them in and gave them some Irish whiskey to warm them up with some home made brown bread. They told him that there was three other survivors on the beach. They asked them if they could help there friends on the beach. Micheal then immediately went to Martin O ' Malley's house about a 150 yards away. Martin worked at the nearby Doonhill look out post {LOP} and was at home in bed. Martin dressed quickly and headed for the LOP to raise the alarm {The LOP had one of thew few telephones in the area at the time }. Then he set off to find the life raft. It contained the three servivors in a very poor state and beckwith's body, which had not yet gone stiff. At about 8.00 am the Gardaí arived at conneely,s house.