Calm after the storm

All hopes of another rescue attempt on Christmas Eve were abandoned. On Christmas Day, 25 December, crowds watched and prayed as the Palme was being broken by the gales. There was widespread public and press interest.

 

The following day, St. Stephen's Day, the Irish Lights vessel, Tearaght, succeeded in getting alongside the Palme and rescued all on board, including the ship's cat. During that day the bodies of thirteen lifeboat men were recovered from the sea. Over the following two weeks, the remaining two bodies were also recovered. All of this was witnessed by crowds of people gathered along the shore, including relatives of the lifeboat men. The reaction of the general public was one of extreme shock and disbelief. Flags were flown at half mast in Ireland, the UK and many European ports.

 

On Saturday 28 December one of the most poignant and heart wrenching funerals took place to Deans Grange Cemetery. A cortege of thirteen horse drawn hearses set out from Kingstown. The cortege was led by the Dublin Metropolitan Police band followed by the crew of the Palme. Each of the thirteen hearses was followed by a grieving family. Large crowds of people lined the route, many joining the cortege as it passed. On arrival at Deans Grange Cemetery each of the coffins was lifted from the hearses and carried by local sailors and fishermen. The lifeboat crew had served together and died together but in death they were to be separated. In keeping with the practice of the time, the Catholic crewmen were interred in the North section of the cemetery while the Protestant crewmen were interred in the South section.

 

A fund was raised to support their dependents. There were donations from the ship’s owners in Finland and from ‘the people of Russia’. There is a plaque on the old lifeboat station wall and a granite memorial. Each year on December 24th a ceremony of remembrance is held at the east pier of Dun Laoghaire Harbour in memory of the men who lost their lives in the lifeboat disaster following which the Dun Laoghaire lifeboat leaves port and places a wreath in the sea at the location of the lifeboat disaster in 1895.