Lost at Sea
on the SS Pacific in 1856
In January of 1856 the wooden steamship SS Pacific (pictured in lithograph above) disappeared in the Atlantic. She was on her way from Liverpool to New York with a crew of 141 and 45 passengers. All perished. The cause and wreckage have never been discovered.
Among those lost was fifty-three-year-old Bernard O’Reilly, an American ecclesiastic.
Born in 1803, O’Reilly came to North America in 1825 to study in Montreal and later, Baltimore. He was ordained in Philadelphia as a priest of New York on October 16, 1831. Two months later Father Bernard was assigned to Rochester, NY where he served for the next 19 years.
In 1857, The Pilot, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston, reported,
“At that trying period, the priests were comparatively few in New York. It might be truly said, ‘The harvest is great, but the laborers are few.’ At such a time, a priest with health and strength and zeal, must be very much appreciated; the young Father Bernard was just such a priest, and it is slight praise to say that he was appreciated. Many who yet survive to tell of the terrible pestilence [cholera], mention his name with reverential awe, and his superhuman exertions with admiration.”1
In 1850 O’Reilly was appointed Bishop of Hartford, Connecticut, then a fledgling diocese established six years prior. At the time, The Pilot reported,
“No sooner had he entered on the duties of his See, than he justified and honored the wisdom of his appointment.”2
He strengthened the seminary and fought the anti-Catholic sentiment at the time. In March 1855, at the height of the infamous Know-Nothing Movement, zealots of that movement threatened a convent in Providence, Rhode Island, then part of the Hartford diocese. The mob was repulsed by Irish defenders and city authorities, led by the bishop.
Once established in Hartford, he began travelling to Europe to recruit priests for his diocese, hence the reason for the fateful trip.
Family and friends in Ireland were no doubt grateful that before departing Liverpool on the SS Pacific O’Reilly found time to visit them.
His funeral was held in Providence on June 17, 1856, months after he was lost at sea.
SS Pacific lithograph source: originally published by Day & Son. In the public domain.
Portrait of Bishop Bernard O'Reilly (1803–1856) from History of the Diocese of Hartford, 1900, 134.
As recounted in the May 17, 2024, edition of The Pilot
Ibid.