Navy search efforts terrible, says trawler skipper

NAVY efforts to locate the wreckage of stricken trawler the Honeydew II and its two missing crew members have been described as ‘terrible’ by one of the missing skipper’s friends.

It is now 13 days since the Honeydew II, as well as the Pere Charles, sank in stormy weather conditions off the south-east coast. Since then, while an approximate location has been established for the Pere Charles, there have been numerous shore and sea searches by the coastguard and members of the public for some sign of the Honeydew II’s resting place as well as the bodies of skipper Ger Bohan and Polish crew member Tomasz Jagla. However, according to John O’Mahony, skipper of the Sean Mair II which has taken part in regular searches, the navy has not taken the whole situation seriously enough. The Sean Mair II was among the boats in an area off Ardmore where signs of something which could be a boat were detected on Sunday. Initially hopes were raised it could be the missing Kinsale trawler, but as yet it has still not been established.

“Yesterday morning the trawlers came across a mark, due to an echo sound. They called to get the navy on scene to identify the mark .

“That call went out at 11am. At 4.15pm the navy coming from Dunmore passed close to the area of the mark and gathered all the boats to do a sweep search to the south out to six miles. They did not identify what was at the mark.

“They then called off the search and said it would re-start again today. They have no boat out today.”

Mr O’Mahony said the mark they have in Ardmore is only in nine fathoms.

“A sports diver could go down to that,” he said.

He also claimed many of the searching skippers had problems with the way the navy has been approaching the search from the start.

“On the first night the Irish Navy vessel left Haulbowline, had a 40 degree roll and turned back. The fishing trawlers continued on. On the second day the navy boat was in the area and then disappeared.”

In response to Mr O’Mahony’s claims, Lieutenant Commander Terry Ward of the Navy said: “The navy service act in support of the coast guard who are the coordinating authority for all search and rescue operations off the Irish coast. At the moment we are acting on a request from the coast guard to dive on and if possible recover, if present, the bodies from the wreck of the Pere Charles off Hook Head.”

“We are hopeful we can resume this operation today using Irish Lights vessel Grannuaile as the dive platform. The LÉ Roisín will be present also in support of the team and will remain for the duration of the operation. The LÉ Eithne responded to a request from the coast guard to coordinate a search for an oil slick in Ardmore.Unfortunately this resulted in nothing found and the coast guard stood down the search.”