On the pier at Howth harbour yesterday the six members of the trawler crew were angry, shocked and upset after their ordeal.
One recalled their desperate broadcast of a mayday signal - the international maritime call for help - as their trawler seemed certain to founder.
"At that stage we though we were going to sink", Mr Richard Butler said.
The ship which struck the trawler ploughed on, ignoring not only the collision, but also the distress call.
The trawler's owner, Mr Kevin Downes, said the vessel seemed unaware that the Renegade was in its path and made no obvious attempt to alter its course. The crew described the incident as "extremely frightening" and said they feared they would be drowned.
There were six crewmen on board the Renegade, including the skipper and a chief engineer. Three members of the crew are in their late teens and were shocked by the experience.
One of them, Mr Richard Butler, said: "All I could see out the window of the wheelhouse was a huge black shape passing by us and then I heard a huge bang and the sound of scraping."
He said he was thrown across the wheelhouse as the boat tilted sideways. "It was quite dark, so it was hard to see anything", he said.
"But we did see it coming towards us head on and expected it to alter its course, but it didn't." He could not see any lighting on the vessel and described it as "black or dark brown with a white wheelhouse".
He said the vessel struck the side of the Renegade and continued its journey. "After it hit us it seemed to slow down for a time, but then kept going", he said.
"As we were about to get into our lifeboat, another boat pulled up along us, called the Mellifont, and took four of us on board. We were glad to see them", he added.
Asked to describe the vessel which struck them, the chief engineer, Mr Mick Kinneen, simply said: "It was big, very big."
Mr Butler's brother, Peter, also a crew member, said they were shocked at how the other vessel had struck them. "The bang was really loud and all our gear was thrown around the place", he said.
Another crew member, Mr Steve Wogan, was asleep in his bunk at the time and was awoken by the sound of the collision. "I couldn't believe it, the water seemed to be seeping in and the whole deck was tilting towards the sea."
He said he had been working on the Renegade for only a few weeks and the collision was "very scary".
Mr Downes said that the crew members were lucky to be alive. "We have seen other boats cut in two in similar incidents."