War graves Bonamargy Friary Ballycastle Co. Antrim
F Harvey
Able Seaman RN J/21488
HMS "Racoon"
9 January 1918
HMS Racoon
Three funnelled destroyer HMS Racoon sank on 9 th January 1918.
“It was calculated by the set of the tide and the position of the bodies that the Racoon had struck the Garrive or Grvan Isles, a little over a mile off Malin Head pier. Nothing was found of her. It was only recently that the wreck has been located, debris lying at 20 metres. Items have been recovered (though it is a war grave) most notably the engine room telegraph, which appears to have been set at half revolutions. A more alarming discovery in 1996 was live ammunition among the lobster pots hauled up by the Malin men, which brought an Irish Army team, and the press, to the scene, the first attention the Racoon had received since brief reports appeared among the war headlines in 1918. At Bonamargy Friary, near Ballycastle, is a marble monument erected to men of Racoon and Viknor. As the fast Racoon was a coal burner more than half her crew were stokers. Nine lucky men (eight stokers and a seaman) had been left behind when she sailed. She had distinguished herself in the Dardanelles campaign and in Mediterranean convoy escort”
Extract from Ian Wilson’s excellent book “Donegal Shipwrecks” published 1998
(ISBN No. 0 948154 56X)
War graves Bonamargy Friary Ballycastle Co. Antrim
F Harvey
Able Seaman RN J/21488
HMS "Racoon"
9 January 1918
HMS Racoon
Three funnelled destroyer HMS Racoon sank on 9 th January 1918.
“It was calculated by the set of the tide and the position of the bodies that the Racoon had struck the Garrive or Grvan Isles, a little over a mile off Malin Head pier. Nothing was found of her. It was only recently that the wreck has been located, debris lying at 20 metres. Items have been recovered (though it is a war grave) most notably the engine room telegraph, which appears to have been set at half revolutions. A more alarming discovery in 1996 was live ammunition among the lobster pots hauled up by the Malin men, which brought an Irish Army team, and the press, to the scene, the first attention the Racoon had received since brief reports appeared among the war headlines in 1918. At Bonamargy Friary, near Ballycastle, is a marble monument erected to men of Racoon and Viknor. As the fast Racoon was a coal burner more than half her crew were stokers. Nine lucky men (eight stokers and a seaman) had been left behind when she sailed. She had distinguished herself in the Dardanelles campaign and in Mediterranean convoy escort”
Extract from Ian Wilson’s excellent book “Donegal Shipwrecks” published 1998
(ISBN No. 0 948154 56X)