Tragedy of the Manx Ship Ellan Vannin Lost in the Irish Sea December 3 1909

Tonight the Ellan Vannin Memorial Service took place in the Our Lady, Star of the Sea & St Maughold Catholic Church on South Promenade in Ramsey, Isle of Man (Manx: Rhumsaa, Mannin) at 6.30pm. The service remembered those who perished on this day, December 3rd, in 1909 when the Isle of Man Steam Packet ship SS Ellan Vannin sank in the Irish Sea. 

Just after 1am on 3 December 1909, Ellan Vannin (the Manx name, along with Mannin, for the Isle of Man) departed from Ramsey. The ship was under the command Captain James Teare, a man with 18 years of experience with the company eventually reaching  the position of Master. On the morning she left, Ellan Vannin was carrying 14 passengers and 21 crew, mail and 60 tonnes of cargo including a number of sheep. Her destination was Liverpool. 

On departure weather conditions were reported as moderate. However, conditions deteriorated and when when the ship arrived at the Mersey Bar lightship, which was a lightship which lit the way for vessels entering and the leaving the River Mersey, the wind had risen to a reported Hurricane Force 12, with waves of more than 24 feet (7 m) in height. She was forced off course and believed to have hit a sandbank. It is then thought that she was overwhelmed by a large wave and sank with the loss of all passengers and crew. 

Normally the Ellan Vannin Memorial Service takes place on the quayside at Ramsey where a memorial stands at the place where the ship departed. Due to weather conditions today the Service takes place at Our Lady Star of the Sea & St Maughold Church which is also appropriate. Its history dates back to 1893 when a small chapel was opened and a new church built on the site in 1909. Two of those who perished in the Ellan Vannin tragedy were stonemasons working on the new church, Daniel Newall and Walter Williams. There is a memorial plaque in the church in memory of them written in both Manx Gaelic and English.

The vessel was originally named Mona's Isle and was built by Tod and McGregor Ltd, Glasgow and entered service with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company in June 1860. She was originally a paddle steamer. She sailed under this name for 23 years. Then in 1883 she underwent a rebuild and conversion to a propeller-driven ship. It was at this point that she was renamed Ellan Vannin. The ship's home port was Ramsey, in the north-east of the Island. Ellan Vannin was highly regarded and respected for her ability to cope with the rough sea conditions experienced in the north of the Irish Sea. Ellan Vannin had a further overhaul in 1891.

Image above: SS 'Ellan Vannin' Frederick Gill (1863–1917) courtesy of Manx National Heritage.

Images Below. Memorial Plaque in Our Lady of the Sea and St Maughold Church Ramsey.

Memorial stone plaques to S.S. Ellan Vannin on Ramsey Quayside.