Wreck of the SS Stolwijk: 10 crew members lost off the Donegal coast in 1940

Eva Osborne

In December 1940, the SS Stolwijk, a Dutch cargo ship, was wrecked off the coast of Co Donegal in hurricane-force winds.

The ship's rudder was damaged in the storm on its journey from the Dominion of Newfoundland to Liverpool, England.

Attempts to rescue the ship by its destroyer failed, and it went on the rocks off Tory Island, Co Donegal. 10 crew members were lost, but the remaining 18 were rescued by the crew of the Arranmore lifeboat.

Monuments and plaques remembering the bravery of the lifeboat crew are scattered around Arranmore island.

Shortly before it struck the rock, a large wave washed the ship's radio officer, Paulus Vierkant, from the deck. He was the first to die.

Another nine died when they jumped into the water and swam to a ship's lifeboat that had been washed overboard. The lifeboat was swept away.

The other 18 stayed on board until they were rescued.

The rescue of the survivors was conducted in terrible weather conditions and both the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands awarded medals to the lifeboat crew.

A Gold Medal was awarded to coxswain John Boyle, a Silver Medal was awarded to motor mechanic Teague Ward and Bronze Medals were awarded to crew members Philip Boyle, Philip Byrne, Neil Byrne, Bryan Gallagher, Patrick O’Donnell, and Joseph Rogers.

The RNLI said this was a rescue of great daring, gallantry and endurance carried out in weather of "exceptional severity".

Each medal was accompanied by a copy of the decree making the award, in which Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands said the medal had been awarded for ‘exceptionally outstanding courage, unselfishness and devotion to duty’.

The owners of the Stolwijk, the Netherlands Shipping and Trading Co, gave £20 to be divided among the crew.

The three bodies recovered following the tragedy were originally buried in the Church of Ireland graveyard in Killult, Donegal. In October 2000, the bodies were exhumed and re-interred at the National Cemetery of Honours in Loenen, Netherlands.

In 2015, Jerry Early, a native of Arranmore and the last eye witness on the island to remember the day, released a song called 'I'll Go' to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the wreck and rescue.