Page 61 - Greystones Archaeological Historical Society

GREYSTONES ARCHAEOLOGICAL & HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL VOLUME 8

survivors on board, which it did. This lifeboat then rescued a lone
occupant of lifeboat No. 5 and then rescued another man from a
raft. HMS Contest managed to rescue six men in a lifeboat and
then two men from separate rafts. The trawler Eastcoates
recovered seven people from the sea, six of whom were dead
and appeared to have died as the result of bring choked by their
lifebelts. The Portpatrick lifeboat rescued two individuals from
separate rafts. All the survivors were landed in Donaghadee
where the voluntary services looked after them but some
declined offers of accommodation and opted to go home to their
families to recover from their ordeal.

The following day the grim task of recovering the bodies from
the sea was undertaken by various vessels and these were
released for burial as they were identified. Some relatives had to
wait some time to receive the remains of loved ones for burial as
eight bodies were later recovered off the Isle of Man, three off
Londonderry/Derry, and two off the Scottish coast.

The final death toll was 128, including Walter D. Smiles, M.P.
for North Down, Major Maynard Sinclair, Minister for Finance and
Deputy Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and a Mr. Sweeney
from Dublin, the only confirmed casualty from the Republic of
Ireland. 44 survived: 10 crew and 34 passengers.

The Formal Inquiry

Given the scale of this tragedy, there were calls for a public
inquiry into the loss of the M.V. Princess Victoria and this opened
rd
on 23 March 1953 in Crumlin Road Courthouse, Belfast, before
Mr. John H. Campbell, Q.C., R.M., and sat for twenty-five days
resulting ultimately in a 30,000 word report.

The Inquiry Report concluded that:

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