| Summary : A number of human bones found on the beach at Rapparee Cove in 1997. It has been suggested that they belong to the victims of the wreck of the LONDON, wrecked at Rapparee Cove in 1796 (878080), a cartel or prisoner-of-war exchange ship, bringing French prisoners back from St. Lucia or St. Kitts during the Napoleonic Wars. Subsequent DNA testing, which remains unpublished, has suggested that they may have come from other wrecks which also claimed significant numbers of victims, such as the wreck carrying the original 'rapparees' (Irish Jacobite soldiers), lost in 1691 (877410), or the wreck of a Portuguese vessel, the BOM SUCCESSO, 1780 (1318501). |
More information : A number of human bones found on the beach at Rapparee Cove in 1997. It has been suggested that they belong to the victims of the wreck of the LONDON, wrecked at Rapparee Cove in 1796 (878080), a cartel or prisoner-of-war exchange ship, bringing French prisoners back from St. Lucia or St. Kitts during the Napoleonic Wars. (1)
Reports of the find in the national press. (2)(3)
A number of bones were initially identified as a mass grave of drowned black prisoners of war. (4)(6)
Subsequent DNA testing of the bones was inconclusive, and remains unpublished, but suggested that the bones were those of persons of white European origin and may be the remains of local fishermen or from the other known wrecks at Rapparee Cove, for example the wreck of a transport carrying Irish Jacobite soldiers, the 'rapparees' whence the cove derives its name (877410) or the BOM SUCCESSO (1318501). (5)(6)
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