Cymric (schooner)

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Cymric (schooner) – a short, easy-to-read history

Cymric was a three-masted iron barquentine built in 1893 by William Thomas and Sons at Amlwch, Ireland. She measured about 123 feet in length, 24 feet wide, and drew roughly 10 feet 8 inches. She carried 228 gross tons and sailed with three masts; an auxiliary engine was added during World War I.

Design and early service
- Cymric was initially used in the South American trade, sailing from Runcorn to Gibraltar and on to the Rio Grande, with Porto Alegre among her Brazilian stops.
- In 1906 she was sold to Captain Richard Hall of Arklow, Ireland, and was re-rigged as a schooner for Arklow’s fleet.

World War I and Q-ship service
- During World War I, Cymric was requisitioned by the British Admiralty to serve as a Q-ship (a disguised merchant raider) along with Gaelic and Mary B Mitchell.
- These ships were meant to lure U-boats into attack. Cymric, like the others, claimed success, though later analysis questioned the results.
- In an incident of friendly fire, Cymric fired on HMS J6, a J-class submarine, which Cymric mistook for a German U-boat. J6 sank, with 14 lives lost; the truth of the incident remained secret under the Official Secrets Act until 1969.

Postwar service and Ireland
- After the war, Cymric returned to the Halls of Arklow and was used to move malt around Ireland, especially from ports like Ballinacurra, New Ross, and Wexford to Dublin.
- She also visited Ringsend, where she collided with a tram at the Grand Canal Dock area. Research shows this collision occurred on 29 November 1921.

Other notable events
- On 22 August 1922 Cymric struck the Brandy Rocks and was beached at Kilmore, County Wexford. She was refloated two days later.
- In 1931, Cymric helped witnesses when the lightship was removed from the Arklow Bank; this event influenced changes to Ireland’s lighthouse authority.
- On Christmas Eve 1933, Cymric grounded in Wexford Harbour for five days but was refloated with divers’ help and lighter cargo adjustments.

World War II and disappearance
- At the start of World War II, Ireland’s neutral ships, including Cymric, kept the country supplied. She was chartered to carry cargo between Ireland, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.
- In October 1943 she underwent a total refit at Ringsend.
- On 23 February 1944 Cymric left Ardrossan, Scotland, loaded with coal for Lisbon. She was sighted off Dublin the next day and then vanished. No wreckage was found, and her eleven crew members were never seen again.
- Theories about her fate include a mine, a submarine attack, or sinking in a gale off the Bay of Biscay.

Legacy
- A Dublin street named Cymric Road commemorates the ship’s era and the loss of neutral Irish ships’ crews.
- Every year, on the third Sunday of November, people remember those who died on Ireland’s neutral ships, including Cymric.

Cymric’s story spans trade routes, wartime deception, and quiet Irish maritime history, ending with a mysterious disappearance that remains unsolved.