Ship ALFRED D. SNOW at wharf.

Ship ALFRED D. SNOW at wharf.

Ship ALFRED D. SNOW at wharf.In 1888 the ship was sailing with a cargo of wheat from Australia to Liverpool, England, from San Francisco on the U.S. west coast.The ship had just turned northward in St. George’s Channel when it encountered a gale, ran aground and broke apart near the entrance of Wexford Harbor. Capt. William J. Willey and his crew of 28 men scrambled to their lifeboats but were drowned in the churning sea. The crew was mostly American but also included men from England, France, Germany, Norway and Russia.Capt. Willey's body was shipped home to Thomaston, Maine, in a brandy-filled lead casket, while other bodies that eventually washed ashore were buried locally. The New Ross Poor Law Union contacted the consul office for reimbursement, including whiskey for those involved in washing and “coffining” the corpses. The U.S. State Department approved the expenditures.