Beeves lighthouse and the Titanic

When the Titanic arrived at Queenstown (now Cobh) on the morning of 11th April 1912, 123 people (63 men and 60 women) boarded the PS America and the PS Ireland and travelled out to the great ship anchored outside Roches Point. They were accompanied by many smaller boats determined to sell lace and other wares to the rich passengers onboard. 

Passengers waiting to board the paddle-steamers at the White Star Line wharf in Queenstown (Cobh Museum)

Those who joined at Queenstown were not the elite: only three travelled first class, seven were second-class passengers and 113 were third-class, all seeking to find a better life in America. Only 44 of them survived to see the New World.
Among the 123 were listed four passengers from the small town of Askeaton in county Limerick – Bertha Moran (32), her brother Daniel (27), her fiancé, Patrick Ryan (32) and a friend Margaret Madigan (21). The women would survive, the men would not.

Bertha Moran (above) and her brother Daniel (below) were children of a local labourer and boatman called Patrick Moran. It is said that Patrick had been a lightkeeper for a few years in the west of Ireland. I can find nothing on Patrick being in the lighthouse service, though there are doubtless many keepers (particularly temporary or local ones) who have flown under the radar of a badly-documented Irish Lights archive.

It is also said that Patrick ran the boat service that brought keepers to and from Beeves Rock lighthouse. There were two houses built on the Beeves Rock for the families of the keepers but, probably around the 1890s, houses were built for the families just to the north of Askeaton, beside the River Deal, or Deel. The river entered the Shannon near the lighthouse.

Patrick's wife had died in 1891 and he never remarried. The large family would not have survived if they hadn't emigrated. Daniel went to America where he became a policeman in the Bronx and Bertha followed later.

A story circulated later, probably by a sensationalist press, that, when their father died in 1909, he left a huge will amounting to anything up to £30,000. The pair had apparently travelled home to sort out the will and Daniel was carrying their share of the money on his person when he was lost.

Of course, one wonders how a poor boatman/labourer could leave such a vast sum of money. One wonders too why the suddenly very wealthy siblings would choose to travel third class on their return to America. The tale has since been debunked by family members.

It has been suggested that Patrick Ryan, above, was the reason for the Moran's visit from America. He had known Bertha Moran from childhood and the two were engaged to be married. He had remained behind in Ireland when Bertha had left to help his father but he had decided to emigrate too. Bertha came back to accompany him over and Daniel came along for the ride, so to speak.

Patrick's sister, Ellie, was married to a man called Paddy Frawley and, when the Titanic sailed, it was Paddy who had the boat tender for Beeves Rock, possibly helped out by Bertha's brother, Pat Moran. It was Paddy and Pat who first brought news of the Titanic's sinking to Askeaton, after hearing it from a boat on the Shannon estuary.

Paddy Frawley later that year commissioned the St. Patrick - named after his brother-in-law Patrick Ryan - the first motorised boat tender on the Shannon. It was built by Attie Boland in Ballylongford. It continued to bring keepers and provisions out to Beeves lighthouse until automation in 1932. In 2012, it was revamped by Patrick Ryan's great-nephew, Cyril Ryan at his boatyard  on the Deel. Cyril was shore attendant for Beeves for many years.

Extract from the Limerick Leader 15th December 2012, on its centenary.

Bertha later said it was her brother Daniel who saved her and Margaret Madigan from drowning that fateful night, physically fighting people to get the two ladies up on the deck where the last, heavily-overloaded lifeboat was leaving. She said she later saw him dive into the water as the ship sank.

Bertha lived a long life in America. She never married.

The wonderful Beeves Rock lighthouse