ASGARD sank in French waters, so the responsibility for discovering the cause would appear to be being left to the French authorities. On SEASCAPES we have been receiving a lot of contacts from listeners concerned about what they variously described as "callous disregard and disinterest," and "deliberately leaving the ship there to rot." The ship is insured for almost €4m. and salvage experts indicated that it could have been raised at considerably less than that amount, had a decision been made to do so at an early stage after the sinking. That decision was put back continuously, while it was claimed that more surveys were necessary for a decision. Sources close to Coiste an Asgard have also claimed that there would be public reluctance amongst people to sail on the vessel again after its sinking. This has been disputed by those calling for the ship to be raised. It seems now that this will not happen and the question arises as to whether the Department will continue to operate a national sail training programme and when and if Ireland will get a replacement State sail training vessel.
RTE's marine correspondent Tom MacSweeney claims in his weekly log that a number of issues arise from not raising the vessel, one of which is that the cause of the sinking may never be positively ascertained. Government policy, on safety grounds, has been to ensure that in Irish waters the cause of the sinking of a vessel, or a maritime accident, should always be ascetained and made public so that lessons would be learned.
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