The eye of the storm
Lifestyle - The bravery of people who save lives at sea is captured by journalist LORNA SIGGINS in her latest book, Search and Rescue. It includes an account of a terrifying storm in Galway Bay during Christmas 1993 when a Spanish trawler got into trouble. A crew was dispatched from Shannon Airport to rescue the fishermen but the Sikorsky helicopter being deployed was damaged so badly, it nearly had to ditch in the ocean. Fortunately, on that occasion, all involved survived.
Close to Christmas 1993, weather conditions were so bad at Shannon Airport that cargo palettes were airborne, and a Fiat Uno was lifting up and down in the wind.
That was how John McDermott, formerly a sergeant with the Air Corps, remembered it. He was working for Irish Helicopters, which held the State search and rescue contract at Shannon Airport.
McDermott and his partner, co-pilot Carmel Kirby, finished duty about 9pm and headed home to Quin, County Clare. Kirby, from Renmore in Galway City, was the first female pilot on the Shannon search and rescue unit. The storm was so severe that they had to make several detours. When they eventually arrived, a front wall had collapsed, a tree was down and there was no electricity.
As they lit candles in the house, they remarked that nothing would happen that night. Conditions were too bad for anyone to be out.
However, several Spanish fishing vessels had put to sea in the teeth of the gale warning. Among them were two Irish-registered Spaniards, the 35-metre Dursey and the 42-metre Dunboy, owned by Eiranova Fisheries of Castletownbere, County Cork, a subsidiary of a Spanish company.
In the early hours of 9 December, the Dunboy reported an engine failure and gave its position on VHF radio as 40 nautical miles west of Slyne Head, County Galway. McDermott was woken by his bleeper at 1.55am.
“We were told there were thirteen crew on a Spanish boat in trouble. I remember thinking that was a great number ‒ thirteen,” McDermott recalled.
Captain Liam Kirwan, who was on duty that night at the Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC), had decided to put in a request for Air Corps and RAF helicopters. There didn’t seem to be any great need, he recalled afterwards, but his instincts told him he should.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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