It remains the greatest loss of life at sea in British coastal waters since the end of the Second World War, claiming the lives of 136 people.
The MV Princess Victoria, a pioneering roll-on roll-off ferry, foundered close to the Copeland Islands off the County Down coast near the entrance to Belfast Lough, after its car deck became flooded on its way from Stranraer to Larne. All women and children on board were lost.
On Tuesday, the community of Stranraer and the Rhins will come together at the memorial in Agnew Park at 11am to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the disaster, as a series of commemorative events are also held by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council in Northern Ireland.
Dean Stephen Forde, who was rector of Larne for 18 years, believes this year’s anniversary holds a special poignancy, in that it may be the last anniversary that includes significant numbers of people for whom the disaster remains a living memory.
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Poor information about weather conditions meant the Princess Victoria sailed out into one of the worst storms of the 20th century on January 31, 1953.
Caught in the maelstrom of the Irish Sea, waves crashed through her stern doors, flooding the car deck and damaging one of the ferry’s engines irreparably.
Unable to turn back because of the weather, she limped on towards Ireland on one engine.
Having left Stranraer’s railway loading pier at 7:45am, she sank shortly after a last, desperate SOS was sent and the order given to abandon ship just before 2pm.
By the evening, only 44 people were left alive out of the 180 who had set out.
Elaine Barton, chairwoman of the Stranraer and District Local History Trust, said: “There was a terrible storm that hit Europe.
“It took 45 minutes to crawl up Loch Ryan, which is normally one of the most sheltered sea lochs in the country.
“She got to the mouth of the loch and Captain Ferguson, who was a competent captain who had served in the First World War, then decided the best course of action would be to turn around and come back into the safety of the loch.
“However, during that manoeuvre, he was then faced with the full north-west gale which breached the stern doors. Captain Ferguson tried to reverse the ship back into the loch but unfortunately by this time the car deck was flooded and he couldn’t. He decided to just carry on and head north.
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“Normally, they would have stuck to the land past a point called Milleur Point, but because of the ferocity of the gale he decided to head north.
“They put out an SOS to say the ship was in difficulty but unfortunately communication wasn’t as efficient as it is now.
“The Princess Victoria still used Morse Code – she was due to be refitted two or three months into 1953.
“The lifeboat had a two-way radio system so what happened was that when the Morse Code message went to Portpatrick Radio Station, they would get the lifeboat to go out; it was like a three-way system.
“Unfortunately, the Princess Victoria went off its original course and of course when the lifeboat arrived the boat wasn’t there, as it had started to head north.
“So there was this awful communication problem.
“The coastguard eventually discovered that the wrong directions had been given because of the storm.
“They eventually alerted the Donaghadee Lifeboat and also a number of other vessels, including I think a cargo boat. They all went to try and rescue the passengers but sadly it was too late. She went down four miles off the Copeland Islands.”
Memorials to those who lost their lives in the disaster have been erected in Larne, Portpatrick and in Stranraer, which lost 23 inhabitants.
And as the Stranraer community prepare to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the disaster, Mrs Barton added that the sadness has “filtered through” the generations in the port.
She said: “It was a huge, huge loss for Stranraer and for Larne, two small communities where everybody knew each other. For a wee place like Stanraer it was a massive loss.
“The anniversary is remembered every year at 11 o’clock at the memorial, and the same in Larne.
“There are fewer and fewer people who can actually remember the event. There’s a man who was an eight-year old boy whose house looked out on to the North Channel.
“He remembers the announcement on the radio that an SOS had been sent out by the Princess Victoria.
“It had a huge impact on our local community and is still remembered.
“I think a lot of the sadness has filtered through the generations of many families locally.”
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