In her compelling 1919 book “Treasure Trove in Gaspé and the Baie des Chaleurs” (published by The Telegraph Printing Co) Quebec): author Margaret Grant MacWhirter writes:
“Cap de Rosier has a tragic interest on account of the tales of marine disaster with which it is associated.
The story is still told in Gaspe village of the good ship Carricks which sailed from Sligo, Ireland, in May, 1847.
An old lady, perhaps the sole survivor, remembered the occurrence when interviewed by the writer. She, a child of twelve years, was one of seven children, and like all the passengers, her family were emigrants. After a rough and uncomfortable passage of twenty-three days, the captain missed his reckoning in a blinding snowstorm, and in the darkness of the night, struck the cruel cape.
One stroke of the angry wave swept her clean. Comparatively few were saved, after hours of cold, hunger and fear such as may be imagined. The inhabitants came to the rescue, and treated the pitiable survivors with kindness. Truly the beach presented a gruesome spectacle the following day, strewn for a mile and a-half with dead bodies.
For a whole day, two ox carts carried the dead to deep trenches near the scene of the disaster. In autumn the heavy storms sweep within sound of the spot. Thus peacefully, with the requiem of the waves and winds they rest. In recent years, a monument has been erected to their memory by the parishioners of St. Patricks in Montreal. Alas! This is only one of the many sorrowful tales which are related of Cap de Rosier.”
On St Patrick’s day, March 17th, 1847, St. Patrick’s Church of Montréal was opened to serve the needs of waves of Irish immigrants arriving in Montreal in great numbers due to the famine and other troubles in Ireland. Over the next fifty years, thousands of lives would be lost in the treacherous journey across the Atlantic ocean.
A monument was created to remember those who traveled on The Carricks of Whitehaven, only to shipwreck off the coast of Quebec. The monument reads:
Sacred to the memory of 187 Irish Immigrants from Sligo wrecked here on April 28th 1847 (Ship Carricks of Whitehaven 87 are buried here. Pray for their souls
In 1900, the parish offered the Carricks Monument to the Cap-des-Rosiers parish church in memory of those who died. Later, in 1966, the ship’s bell was found far away in Blanc Sablon and enshrined in a small monument next to the original one.A plaque, put in place in 1977 by the Canadian Parks Service, recalls this tragedy. It is located in the north sector of Forillon National Park. Gaspé, La Côte-de-Gaspé, Quebec, Canada
Ghost of the Carricks 