SUBMARINE COMMANDER, yachtsman, adventurer and author Bill King has been awarded one of Ireland’s most distinguished sailing awards as he approaches his 100th birthday.
The Fastnet Trophy was presented to Cdr King for a “lifetime of outstanding achievement” at a function hosted by the Irish Cruising Club (ICC) in Galway at the weekend.
Cdr King, who is the oldest surviving submarine commander from the second World War, already holds the Blue Water Medal, presented by the Cruising Club of America, among many other distinctions.
He secured it for being the first Irish sailor to circumnavigate the globe single-handedly, in his yacht, Galway Blazer II, after several attempts and a dramatic collision with a whale or shark.
The three other Irish Blue Water medal recipients – Arctic sailor John Gore Grimes, and polar circumnavigators Paddy Barry and Jarlath Cunnane – also attended the function in Galway to honour Cdr King.
ICC commodore Peter Ronaldson recalled Cdr King’s many achievements and described him as one of Ireland’s “greatest sailors and personalities”.
Inspired by his grandmother, who sailed into her 80s, Cdr King had taken to the sea again after the war to try and recover from the ordeal.
He holds seven medals for military service, including the Distinguished Service Order (twice) and the Distinguished Service Cross. Four years ago, the British defence ministry conferred him with the Arctic Emblem for service north of the Arctic Circle and west of the Urals between 1939 and 1945.
Just under 3,000 British sailors and merchant seamen were killed during attacks by German U-boats and Luftwaffe bombers, when escorting British merchant ships carrying war materials to Russia.
In a separate development, a former master of the Asgard II has said that one more underwater survey should be carried out on the hull of the Asgard II lying on the seabed off the northwest coast of France.
“If the ship is still intact, it could be the focus of a massive community project to restore it,” Capt Gerry Burns says. He also believes that the future of sail training lies with a charitable trust, as he says that the State “clearly has no interest in young people”.
Marine organisations expressed shock and disappointment when Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea announced the axing of the national programme run by Coiste an Asgard in the last budget, to save an annual €800,000.
Mr O’Dea’s department also confirmed that the €3.8 million insurance for the Asgard II has been given to the Department of Finance as “extra exchequer receipts”. Mr O’Dea had initially investigated a possible salvage, and then indicated as recently as September 2009 that the insurance money would be used to build a replacement vessel.
All 25 crew and trainees were rescued when the ship began taking water 22km west of Belle-Ile, en route to La Rochelle, on September 11th, 2008. An investigation into the cause is being led by French authorities, with co-operation from this State’s Marine Casualty Investigation Board.