''Stephen Whitney'' was a passenger-carrying sailing ship which was wrecked on West Calf Island off the southern coast of Ireland on 10 November 1847 with the loss of 92 of the 110 passengers and crew aboard. She was a packet ship in Robert Kermit's Red Star Line. The ship was named after a Kermit investor, New York merchant

Stephen Whitney Stephen Whitney (September 4, 1776 – February 16, 1860) was an American merchant. He was one of the wealthiest merchants in New York City in the first half of the 19th century. His fortune was considered second only to that of John Jacob Ast ...

. The 1,034-ton ship left New York City on 18 October for Liverpool carrying passengers and a cargo which included corn, raw cotton, cheese, resin, and 20 boxes of clocks. On 10 November in thick fog, the captain, C.W. Popham, mistook the Crookhaven lighthouse for the one at the Old Head of Kinsale and the lighthouse on

Cape Clear Island Clear Island or Cape Clear Island (officially known by its Irish name: Cléire, and sometimes also called Oileán Chléire) is an island off the south-west coast of County Cork in Ireland. It is the southernmost inhabited part of Ireland and ha ...

was obscured by fog compounding the error in navigation. At around 10 pm, the ship struck the western tip of West Calf Island, completely breaking up within about ten minutes. The loss of the ship triggered the decision to replace the

lighthouse with one on Fastnet Rock. This decision was also because the lighthouse on Cape Clear was often shrouded in fog or low level cloud, which made it hard or at times impossible to see.

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External links

Irish newspaper feature
Shipwrecks in the Celtic Sea Maritime incidents in November 1847 Merchant ships of the United States Shipwrecks of Ireland {{Ireland-maritime-stub