Families hope sunken trawlers will be raised soon
Families of seven fishermen lost on board the Maggie B last year and the Pere Charles in January have welcomed the invitation to salvage companies to tender for the project.
The invitation has been posted on the government’s e-tenders website and salvage companies throughout Ireland and the EU have until August 17 to make their pitch.
A decision on the successful tender is expected by the end of the month.
Skipper, Glen Cott, from Ballycotton and crew member, Jan Sankowski, from Poland drowned when the Maggie B sank in 2006, while the sinking of the Dunmore East-based Pere Charles last January resulted in the loss of skipper Tom Hennessy, his uncle Pat Hennessy, Billy O’Connor, Pat Coady and Andriy Dyrin.
Families of the fishermen have been campaigning to have the boats raised in a bid to definitively establish whether or not any bodies are left on board.
“We’re just happy that this is going ahead, after all the waiting. Hopefully now the rest of it will come together fairly quickly,” said Pat Hennessy, brother of Tom Hennessy, yesterday.
The relatives have been holding onto some hope that their loved ones may still be on board the stricken vessels, and that the lifting operations will provide some closure.
“This is just another step along the way,” added Mr Hennessy.
It’s anticipated that, once the contact is awarded, the successful company will want to get the job done as quickly as possible to prevent it from running into the late autumn and winter weather.
According to the Irish Coast Guard’s requirements, the salvage company will have to deliver the two trawlers upright either alongside or on the quay wall in Arklow Harbour or another suitable harbour in Ireland.
The contractors will have to assess and provide full risk assessments for each stage of the project, and ensure that no unnecessary further damage is done during the raising process. “The operation is to be completed as soon as reasonably possible having regard to the deep-water location of the vessels and the requirements for health and safety,” says the tender notice.
Contractors will also have to consider that missing crew may still be trapped within the wrecks.
Once the boats have been fully inspected by the Irish Coast Guard, the contractor will have to arrange their disposal, and that of any debris and pollutants within, inside 30 days.
No timeframe has yet been put in place for the inspection process.
“Weather will have a huge part to play in this,” a government source said yesterday. “But we’re committed to going about it as soon as possible.”
