Last Saturday the Lutheran Church in Ireland got invited to the “Kerlogue” Exhibition in the old Mariner's Church in Dun Laoghaire, where the Maritime Museum is based. The museum’s greatest artefact is probably the building itself, as it is one of a few custom-built places of worship for seafarers remaining intact in the world today.

The Exhibition focused on 29 December 1943 when the irish “Kerlogue” cargo ship was on passage from Lisbon to Dublin with a cargo full of oranges. When she was circled by a German long range reconnaissance aircraft signalling “SOS” requesting for help. The Kerlogue altered course and came upon an appalling scene. The German Narvik-class destroyer and two Elbing class torpedo boats had been sunk. More than 700 men, most of them dead, were in the water, it was the aftermath of a naval battle with the British Royal Navy. The Kerlogue spent ten hours plucking survivors from the water. 168 were rescued, although four died on board. This was remarkable, given that the Kerlogue was only a small boat and the crew had only ten sailors. The cargo of oranges saved all of them from dehydration.

The German Lieutenant-Commander Quedenfelt requested that the ship travel to La Rochelle to land his men. The Royal Navy gave instructions to the Kerlogue to go to Fishguard, but Captain Donohue headed to Cork. There the Cork hospital cared for the German wounded, afterwards the rescued Germans remained at the Curragh internment camp until August 1945. Two are buried in Glencree German War Cemetery. This is only one of many remarkable stories been told at the Museum, which opened in 2012. It is worth visiting and to my surprise as it is still a Church you can get married there.

Photo: Mo Mathies (church member), Achim Klueber (Son of a German Sailer), Elke Martin (member of the Church Council) and Christian Resch (Deputy Head of the German Embassy in Ireland) at the Exhibition