Families and friends of six sailors from Northern Ireland who died when their boat sank off the Cornish coast over 40 years ago gathered at the weekend for a memorial service to their loved ones.

A total of 12 crewmen were killed when the Ardgarry went down off Lizard Point in Cornwall in December 1962.

The 1,000 tonne ship was on its way from Swansea to Rouen in France carrying a cargo of coal when it ran into a heavy storm which had been raging for weeks.

The ship was battered by giant waves and winds gusting up to force 11 when it was reported to be in severe distress.

The conditions were so atrocious that a local lifeboat crew were barely able to get the doors of their boathouse open.

Six of the crewmen, including the captain Eric Cooper and First Mate Morris Cooper, were from Northern Ireland. One was from Greencastle in Donegal and the remaining five were from Scotland.

The ship lay hidden until two years ago when divers discovered the vessel and her bell.

Belfast brothers Patrick and Jim Slattery, who lost their father Patrick in the tragedy, have devoted the past two years to tracing the other relatives of shipmates who died.

Jim, who was then 13, said he remembered the moment his family found out the ship had gone down through a TV news report.

“They flashed up a report saying a ship was missing called the Ardgarry,” he said.

“My mum immediately went into hysterics and started crying ‘that’s your father’s ship.’”

The brothers emigrated to Canada in the early 1970s but never forgot the father who was lost at sea. Their interest in the ship and its fate was rekindled two years ago when Jim tuned in to a television programme about shipwrecks, which featured a group of divers who had come across the wreck of the Ardgarry, complete with its bell.

“I felt all kinds of emotion. For 45 years it was lost and then, suddenly, it was there,” he said. “More than anything else I wanted to touch that bell.”

The pair set about tracking down the relatives of their father’s shipmates and within a year had traced wives, sons, daughters and granddaughters of the men who lost their lives at the same time as their father.

Around 100 people gathered on Sunday to lay a simple granite memorial stone close to the lifeboat station from where the rescue crew launched in a desperate bid to save the lives of the Ardgarry crew.

A specially written poem was read out, following which families laid flowers in the sea.

“It was the first time the families had come together and it was a wonderful moment,” said Jim Slattery. “It was an emotional journey for us all”