Search goes on for missing crewman
Shane Murnaghan, 28, said he was thrown into the water as he checked lobster pots off the Co Down coast.
From his hospital bed in the Isle of Man, he described seeing his stricken friend Colin Donnelly seconds before he himself climbed to safety.
He said: “I don’t know what happened. The boat just went and when the life raft went off I swam to it. I saw Colin and he had a life jacket on. When I got into the life raft I turned around and Colin was gone.”
Mr Murnaghan was speaking to his mother Rita from the Norbles Hospital in Douglas. He was picked up nine miles south-east of the Isle of Man by a merchant vessel after his life raft drifted for about 20 hours from close to his home port of Kilkeel.
Rita Murnaghan said her son’s only thoughts were for his best friend Mr Donnelly, 31, who is still missing, and for Mr Donnelly’s nine-year-old son Jordan.
As air sea rescue teams searched the Co Down coast, the distraught Donnelly family maintained an anxious vigil throughout the day at Kilkeel harbour.
The group included Mr Donnelly’s former partner Sharon Rooney and his father Bernard. His son Jordan, whose 10th birthday is next week, stood forlornly at the quayside peering out to sea. As light faded, the official search was called off but dozens of Kilkeel fishing boats continued to look for the missing fisherman.
The two men were on their boat the Emerald Dawn which sank six miles from Kilkeel as they fished for crab on Wednesday afternoon. Police divers found the boat after locating a lobster pot which had lodged at the bottom of the sea bed. The Marine Accident Investigation Board are expected to launch an inquiry.
Mr Murnaghan’s tearful father, Henry, said hopes of finding Mr Donnelly were fading fast.
“He was like a son to me. We thought last night there was no hope for Shane. Although we’re hanging on, it’s fading all the time,” he said.
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