THE BELL from the sail training ship Asgard II rang for the first time in 22 months yesterday when a group of divers brought it back to Ireland from France.
The diving team led by Eoin McGarry from Co Waterford intends to hand over the bell, ship’s compass and steering wheel to Coiste an Asgard, the State sail training committee, in the coming days.
Mr McGarry and his team arrived in Rosslare, Co Wexford, from France almost a week after two deep-sea dives saw the recovery of the items from a depth of 83m in the Bay of Biscay.
The dive team also confirmed that the ship, which sank on September 11th, 2008, is no longer in any condition to be salvaged successfully.
Minister for Defence Tony Killeen said he was “happy that nobody was injured” as the vessel, as he understood it, was in a hazardous location with loose rigging.
Coiste an Asgard, which is under the aegis of Mr Killeen’s department, said last week it had not authorised the dive, but the divers said the wreck was not the subject of a protection order or exclusion zone – and could have been stripped by other divers.
They said they undertook the dive on behalf of Irish people who cared about the brigantine. Plans to replace Asgard II were cancelled by the Government last year, and the entire national sail training programme was axed in last year’s budget.
Mr Killeen said he was still “actively pursuing” the replacement of ageing Naval Service patrol ships, but had not yet been able to secure final Government approval. Hull plating had to be installed on the LE Aoife earlier this year, Mr Killeen confirmed when he marked the 30th birthday of sister ship LE Aisling in Galway docks at the weekend. Holes had previously been identified in the LE Emer, also built in Cork more than three decades ago.
It has been anticipated Mr Killeen would make an announcement about plans for a €180 million ship replacement programme over the weekend, but he said discussions were still continuing.
The commitment to replace two ships, with an option of a third, had been made by Mr Killeen’s predecessor, Willie O’Dea. The original replacement programme was to have run from 2008 to 2012, but was frozen due to budgetary constraints.
The LE Aisling’s birthday was marked with an inspection of a guard of honour and a birthday cake by Mr Killeen, Naval Service chief Commodore Frank Lynch, ship commander Lieut Cmdr Roberta O’Brien (31) and Galway harbourmaster Capt Brian Killeen in Galway docks.
Also present was former minister for defence Bobby Molloy, who in 1979 was instrumental in procuring the ship. Many of the original crew and all previous captains attended the onboard reception.
The ship was involved in the Marita Ann gun-smuggling incident in 1984, the confrontation with Spanish fishing vessel Sonia in the same year, and the search for bodies from the Air India explosion off the southwest in 1985.
Mr Killeen noted that LE Aisling had steamed 540,000 nautical miles and had been involved in many life-saving search and rescue operations.