Considine and the S.S. Keeper Collection

The S.S. Keeper

In June 2017, Clarecastle Heritage & Wildlife Group commemorated the 100^th Anniversary of the lost of the S.S. Keeper, sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Antrim during the Great War in June 1917, with the lost of twelve of a crew including four men from Clarecastle.  An Anchor Memorial on Clarecastle Quay was unveiled at the time,  with an inscription honouring the men, including the Captain of the ship, William McCready, Arthur Considine, Robert Cole and James McMahon.

In recent days, two granddaughters of Arthur Considine, Delors Smith and Claire Dunne, visited the Anchor Memorial to pay their respects. They were met on Clarecastle Quay by Eric Shaw of the Heritage Group who presented them with a souvenir brochure of the unveiling of the Memorial two years ago. The ladies showed Eric  Arthur Considine’s war medals that had been presented posthumously to the family after Arthur was lost in the tragedy. These included the Memorial Plaque known as the Widow’s Penny, the Maritime Marine War Medal 1914-1918 and the silver British War Medal 1914-1918. Delors and Claire also showed Eric a rare photograph that was taken in Belfast in April 1917, just a short time before the ship was lost. Arthur Considine appears on the right of the photo. The other two men may well have been crew members of the ill-fated ship. The two ladies remembered visiting their Grandmother, Margaret, wife of Arthur and had fond memories of the Quay Road in the 1950s and later.