Whiddy Island - Historical Information

Historical Information

In the last few months of World War I, Whiddy became the site of a US naval air station. The US Navy's Air Wing established a seaplane base on the western end of the island; this became operational on 25 September 1918 when the first two planes arrived. They patrolled an area around Fastnet Rock. One of the planes crashed on 22 October 1918, killing one airman. The base had an operational radio station receiving messages from as far away as the USA and Russia. Five planes were based in Whiddy. With the Armistice in November 1918, the rationale for maintaining it was ended and the station closed in January 1919. The following planes were based in Whiddy 1918:

• H16s, Nos. A1072 (crashed 22 October 1918 killing one airman),
• A1078, A1084, A3466, A4047, A4048, these were the pusher type of aircraft with the engine and propellor behind the pilot.
• The H16 Large America, planes were made by Curtiss, at Buffalo, New York. They were 46 ft. long, a wing span of 95 ft two 400h.p. Liberty 12 engines, four Lewis machine guns a bomb load of four 230 pounders a crew of five consisting of a pilot, two observers, a mechanic and a wireless operator.

The island is the site of a large oil terminal constructed in the late 1960s by Gulf Oil. This was designed to accommodate the largest supertankers sailing directly from the Middle East.

On Monday, January 8, 1979, a French tanker, the Betelgeuse, was unloading a cargo of crude oil at the terminal when it exploded. The blast and subsequent fire killed 50 people. This was known as the Betelgeuse incident and is considered to be the worst maritime disaster in Irish history. The terminal, which had been operational since 1969, was never fully repaired. It was transferred to the Irish government in 1986, after which it was used to hold the Irish strategic oil reserve.

The ruins of Pilchard Palaces can be observed close to the bank, the pilchard Industry was a source of huge income for the islanders pre-1900