The seanchaí's account of the Ballycrovane follower lost in November 1918, in Emma Verling's translation from 'Gort Broc'

--- source: For Luke.docx (Emma Verling, 10 Jan 2025) --- For Luke 102. The Sinking of the Béal a’ Chrobháin Follower (fonota 3 after ‘Follower’) Here’s a story about danger at sea. A lot of people lost their lives on the sea bed. God bless and rest their souls. I’ll tell you about local seine fishermen in my own townland whom I knew well, who were drowned. Also, I am familiar with the place where it happened. One night, a seine crew went fishing from Béal a’ Chrobháin. We called them the Béal a’ Chrobháin seine, and they were usually fishing in Kenmare River or under Cuailleach. They went there at nightfall. Fish weren’t seen and couldn’t be fished, so they returned at midnight, put their boat on its stand and agreed that the night was very long. It was around Lá ’le Michíl in November, I remember it well. They agreed that it would be a good idea to try again at dawn because a low tide was coming one hour before daybreak, and the fish usually ran then, so they couldn’t miss that opportunity. The seine master didn’t agree, because he said they often did that, and had nothing to show for it. But the other fishermen disagreed. They came to the shore at the appointed time, every one of them, except the seine master. They went into the boats and rowed until they went to where the fish usually were, but there was no fish there on that night. That didn’t please them at all. They arrived at the time appointed, all except the seine master because he didn’t expect that any fish would be there. Before they went out, the other seines had taken a small amout of fish. I remember the night well. It was a fine, calm night but there were shores that weren’t too high, but a change was coming and that was the one danger that existed. When day was dawning, they knew that it was pointless searching for fish. They faced the boats towards home and they were hurrying along. There were other seines there also and they were rowing along together. There were two seine boats there in all. The follower was beside its own seine boat, and she went towards land where there was a horrible, dangerous submerged reef. The man on the rudder, didn’t have very much experience of the sea, he had more experience of a horse and cart on the road, but he used to go seining too. He wasn’t very good on oars, because he had only the use of one hand, may God bless his soul. He was put on the rudder, steering the boat, and he ran the boat into the dangerous reef, the reef erupted and threw the boat up in the air. I don’t know how high, but high enough, because it was a bad reef. When the boat fell down, it was broken into planks on the surface of the water, and every man was thrown into the water, except for one boy who couldn’t swim or row. He was the weakest boy of the crew, but he stayed on the surface of the water. The other seine was behind them and when they approached the place, they heard someone’s voice, but they didn’t see any boat. They didn’t go in towards the reef, because they feared it. They couldn’t come in close to them, but the seine boat went around the reef to see if there was any sighting of the men. There wasn’t, because the boat was broken into planks and the oars were floating on the surface of the water. The other seine boat came upon them, and they went in the direction of the planks, but they didn’t see any man clinging to an oar or a plank, or a keel. They couldn’t find them at all. They heard a voice in the water a short distance from them and went towards it, and who was there, clutching an oar, but the boy who was in the follower. He had been removed from the long boat to steer the follower instead of their master, who had steered it before that. He spoke to them. “I’m here, won’t you take me in?” he said. He was entangled in an oar. They took him into the boat, and that was the only crew member they found. They went ashore when they failed to find anybody else, and it was broad daylight. On the following day, the story spread that the boat had sunk, and, indeed, it was a great cause of distress to everyone, especially to their fathers and mothers. People who heard it went to nearby shores but it was no use, they saw none of the crew, and they couldn’t be found. They sent to Cork city for a diver and he came and dived down to search for the men, but that was fruitless. Not one of them was found, and the diver had to give up. When day broke, indeed, everybody heard it. A week after that, three fishermen were washed up on the shore in a big strand, and three weeks later, the other three were found in a lower strand, inside in a ravine among the seaweed, may God rest them. They were buried. That happened during my lifetime. There were two brothers of the Ó Murchú family among them. There was a man of the Ó Súilleabháin family there, and he left six children and his wife behind, and a boy of the Mac Cárthaigh family. Source: Badger’s Field translation of Gort Broc by Emma Verling