Colm Donnelly relates how Sean Patterson, a Newry schoolmaster, has brought the wreck of the SS 'Upas' back to life

The Newry steamship 'Upas' was the pride of the J.S. Fisher fleet of colliers until the fateful day of March 18 1915. For on that day at around 10.30am the ship went down in atrocious conditions off Ballyquintin Point at the tip of the Ards Peninsula. Of her nine man crew only two survived the tragedy, but part of the ill-fated Upas lives on at Down County Museum in Downpatrick. The ship's telegraph - the instrument which communicated messages between the bridge and the engine room - was salvaged from the wreck in two pieces before being reassembled. It now takes pride of place in the Museum's Sea of Life exhibition. One of the pieces of the telegraph fell into the hands of Newry-based teacher and amateur historian, Sean Patterson. Through his research, the other missing part of the apparatus was traced and the machine put back together again. And now it stands as part of the museum's silent commentary on the dramatic events of all those years ago - events we know quite a bit of detail about from testimonies given by one of the shipwreck survivors, Samuel Hanna. He told how heavy seas had made the ship's passage from Ayr in Scotland to Warrenpoint treacherous beyond belief. And as if the rough seas were not enough, the Upas steamed into a snow storm as it neared the Ards Peninsula. "When the snow came round we could see nothing at all. "You could hardly see the foremasts," he said in a radio interview several years after the tragedy. The Upas' skipper, Captain William McFerran, decided to 'heave to' and try and ride out the storm. But as he turned the ship into the wind she rolled over and the cargo of coal shifted in the hold. Unbalanced and struck by mighty waves, the Upas began to capsize and lost all steering. "It's all up," Hanna remembers McFerran telling him as he ordered the crew to abandon ship. As the men on board scrambled to release the collier's lifeboat, disaster struck when the boat collided with a derrick which was attempting to lower it into the sea. The last thing which Samuel Hanna remembered from that stage of his struggle to survive was the sight of doomed Captain McFerran, who had stayed with his ship, standing alone close to the bridge. As the crew tried to keep afloat in the sea they grabbed anything close to them that could float. For Samuel there was also the terrible realisation that his younger brother, 19-year-old Joe, among the Upas crew, was nowhere to be seen. After several hours in the water Hanna and James McShane - the only other survivor of the Upas disaster, were picked up by the crew of the steamer Ailsa Craig out of Belfast. But even then the horror was not over. The Ailsa had launched a skiff to attempt the rescue mission, but it started taking in water and was mercilessly blown out to sea by the driving winds. Hanna remembered looking back to his own doomed ship when one of the rescuers said: "Look up Sammy, there's the last of her." The Upas had begun to slide back under the water and sank to the bottom. Some time later the rescuers and the rescued were brought to safety by the Donaghadee Lifeboat - just in time, because they were all 'nearly dead from the cold'. All of this colour and emotion is brought back by the lone artefact from the Upas standing in the County Museum - the ship's telegraph - still sending out a message and stubbornly refusing to allow visitors to forget the story of hopes dashed and lives lost on the SS Upas.

The SS Upas replaced the SS Seapoint in April 1913, and became the pride of the Fisher fleet. It sank off Ballyquintin Point on 18 March 1915 with the loss of all except two members of the crew. (Courtesy of Glasgow University Archive Services, DC101/1609)

If you have an illustrated local story that you would like to see included on our site, please contact mking@downdc.gov.uk

Related article : From Ballyquintin to Buffalo, Boston and beyond
Related article : James Coree, Ardglass harbour master