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Overcast Remembering the shipwreck victims at Rockville Cemetery
Historians, Hibernians host annual remembrance
On a plot of land called the Mariner’s Burial Ground in the Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook, an 18-foot-tall marble obelisk pays tribute to the terrible tragedies of the Bristol and the Mexico, two vessels that were shipwrecked just days apart in the winter of 1836-37 off the coast of Long Island.
Last Saturday, members of The Historical Society of East Rockaway & Lynbrook, along with the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, gathered around the sleek, white marker to honor the 139 men, women and children victims who are buried there — the vast majority of them Irish immigrants who were victims of two shipwrecks. The citizens of East Rockaway, Lynbrook and Rockville Centre erected the monument in 1840.
This event, organized every year for the last 17 years by Village Historian and HSERL director Art Mattson, and co-chaired by Andrew Healey, Nassau County Charities & Missions, Past President AOH Div 17, St Brendan the Navigator of Long Beach, Island Park and Point Lookout, was made more meaningful because, due in large part to Mattson’s efforts, the cemetery, located at the corner of Merrick Road and Ocean Avenue in Lynbrook, and the marble monument were put on the New York State Register of Historic Places earlier this month. National recognition is expected to follow in the next month or two.
Not only was this the 175th anniversary of the Bristol and Mexico monuments, Mattson said, he also got to publicly announce that, after a year of hard work on a 40-page application, I got the both the Rockville Cemetery and the monument added to the NY Register of Historic Places, and also unveiled three new, beautiful, historical signs that tell the story of the terrible tragedy that the monument represents. “This year we had a wonderful turnout of historical society members and various Irish-American groups, including pipers and a color guard,” he said.
“If it weren’t for Art Mattson’s interest in doing all the research to learn about the Bristol & Mexico Monument, today we would not be able to share and preserve this piece of maritime, local, state, national and Irish history today,” said Madeline Pearson, HSERL’s executive director.
