Wrecked, CREVAGH HEAD, Vessel Type: FISHING CURRACHS , Tonnage: Unknown , Cargo: MACKEREL , Route : Cleggan to Cleggan SEVERAL boats WERE LOST OFF CREVAGH HEAD. On the evening of October 28th, 1927, a total of 45 lives were lost at sea along the western seaboard. Connemara suffered many losses. According to contemporary reports in the Connaught Telegraph, 9 people were lost off Inishbofin, while 26 fishermen were drowned in Cleggan Bay. In Co Mayo, at Lacken Bay, 9 fishermen were drowned when their boats were driven against the rocks by the storm. Nine boats set out that afternoon from Lacken Pier to fish for herring; they were 8-metre open boats and were within half a kilometre of the shore when the storm blew up suddenly. The crews of seven boats made it safely ashore, while the remaining two boats were blown towards the cliffs and all eight members of one crew were lost. Off the Mullet peninsula, 10 people from the Inishkea Islands were lost, many of them in their teens. The storm led directly to the abandonment of the islands. Later on the 28th across the Irish Sea, coastal flooding along Cardigan Bay washed away houses and a railway line, while five people were drowned in the Lancashire town of Fleetwood, where the sea wall was demolished by the storm. Strong south westerly winds had blown for several days during late October 1927 as a succession of Atlantic depressions moved across and to the north of Ireland. The observing station at Blacksod Point, near Belmullet, reported continuous winds of between Beaufort force 6 and 8 between the 24th and 28th. Early on the 28th, strong south easterly winds off the Mayo coast eased for a short while, before a strong north westerly gale developed in the late afternoon. These winds were associated with a depression of 976 hPa, which had deepened rapidly during the day as very cold Arctic air was drawn into the system. A strong sea surge, the result of the long continuance of south westerly winds across the Atlantic, contributed to the exceptionally treacherous sea conditions off the west of Ireland.
