Descendants of passengers on the RMS Lusitania's final voyage laid a wreath at the site of the wreck before gathering at the Old Head of Kinsale yesterday.
Jon Kiger, great grandson of survivor Albert Jackson Byington who went on to have a successful business career in Brazil, travelled to Kinsale from Atlanta.
“For those of us who went out to the wreck site, the missing link for us was how far off land the ship went down and how far these communities had to travel to give this aid.
“It was a very sombre time out there on the wreck site as we looked back on land and could only imagine the fear in the hearts of those people in those waters as they looked back, imagining what their fate would be.”
He presented a plaque from the relatives of people lost and saved in the sinking which will hang in the Lusitania Museum, officially opened by Minister for Marine and Defence Simon Coveney yesterday.
Mr Kiger said the response by Cork’s coastal communities had been unprecedented. “The people of these communities dropped what they were doing, went out and brought people back and for that we are eternally grateful.”
‘Running away to sea’
Michael Dow, grandson of the captain of the Lusitania, Daniel Dow, told how as a young boy 130 years ago, his grandfather watched ships passing the Old Head of Kinsale with his sister, before "running away to sea", aged 16, to begin an apprenticeship at a shipping company.
"The Lusitania was his favourite ship. He was brought up here in Ireland. His nickname was Paddy Dow, Cunard's Irish skipper," Mr Dow said.