Shipwreck victims remembered in Lynbrook

Posted Thursday, November 5, 2020 11:50 am

Community groups, residents and elected officials gathered at the Rockville Cemetery last month to remember shipwreck victims that were buried there in 1837. Above, from left, John Kelhetter of Glor Na nGael Pipes & Drums, Andy Healey, the co-chairman of the Nassau County Ancient Order of Hibernians and Art Mattson, co-chairman of the Historical Society of East Rockaway and Lynbrook and Lynbrook’s village historian.

Courtesy Frank Torre

Each October for the past two decades, a ceremony has been held in Lynbrook’s Rockville Cemetery in remembrance of 139 shipwreck victims buried there in a mass grave in 1837.

Half the victims drowned when their ship, the Bristol, sank near Rockaway Beach. The others froze to death on the deck of their ship, the Mexico, only 200 yards offshore at Long Beach. Most of the victims were families emigrating from Ireland.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, a ceremony was still held last month. In attendance were members of the women’s division of the the Ancient Order of Hibernians Division No. 17 St. Brendan the Navigator (Long Beach, Island Park and Point Lookout), the Historical Society of East Rockaway and Lynbrook, the AOH of Nassau County, the Nassau County Firefighters Emerald Society, residents of Lynbrook and East Rockaway and Lynbrook Mayor Alan Beach.

Courtesy Art Mattson

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