‘That’s fishing. Something like this is so frightening’

THE coastal communities devastated after two trawlers sank without trace off the south coast united in prayer yesterday as the search continued for a second day.

Mass-goers in the village of Dunmore East, Co Waterford, which was home to five drowned fishermen, gathered at church as locals in Kinsale, Co Cork, prayed for the skipper and Polish crewman from the Honeydew II.

A sombre mood descended upon the close-knit fishing village in Waterford as all hope faded that any of the men — Billy O’Connor, Andriy Dyrin, Tom Hennessy, Pat Hennessy, and Pat Coady — would be found alive.

Now the families and friends can only pray that the sometimes bountiful, but sometimes vengeful, waters off the coast of the south-east will yield the bodies of the fishermen before too long.

“There are no words to sum it up,” parish priest Fr Brian Power said yesterday. “It’s an awful tragedy. It has struck the whole community and we were all struck by the second boat [the Honeydew II]. It’s incredible.”

While activity was frenetic along the quays and at Dunmore pier throughout Thursday, the day after the Pere Charles went down, yesterday the atmosphere was quieter along the shoreline. Some relatives of the five men continued to arrive at the RNLI lifeboat station, and walk along the pier, as the air and water search progressed near Hook Head, but others preferred to stay at home, comforted by friends and neighbours.

Coastguard officials and gardaí have praised the many workers and volunteers who have undertaken work on the search, including lifeboat members, coastguard assistants and local fishermen who have gone out on their trawlers to assist in the operation.

The last people to hear from skipper Tom Hennessy were crew members on board the Susanna G, the trawler which spent much of Wednesday herring fishing with the Pere Charles.

Brian Crummey, who was assisting the crew on board the Susanna G, said that the Pere Charles had about 50 tonnes of herring by 6pm on Wednesday, after a successful day’s fishing, while his boat had about 25 tonnes.

“We were heading back to the harbour, parallel to one another, about a mile apart,” Mr Crummey said.

About half-an-hour after fishing had concluded, the Susanna G was asked to stand-by by the Pere Charles. “We thought nothing of it, because often when you’re involved with another boat on the sea, if anything happened like the engine coughing, you’d be asked to stand-by.”

However, darkness had fallen and the Susanna G crew could no longer see the Pere Charles in the sea, and all radio contact was lost once the initial message to say that something was wrong had been sent.

“Shortly after that, when no further contact was made, we notified the coastguard that there could be a problem.”

Mr Crummey has been a fisherman all his life, and knows the dangers faced by those at the front of the industry. “That’s fishing,” he says philosophically. “Something like this, with so many people involved, is so frightening.”

He added that, as the day’s fishing had been concluded, the men wouldn’t have been anywhere near the liferafts on board the Pere Charles — effectively sealing their fate inside the vessel. “Hopefully, they’re still in the boat.”