Satellite navigation systems such as GPS can be switched off at any point, and “we are closer to it now than ever”, Captain Harry McClenahan says.
The recently retired master mariner with the Commissioners of Irish Lights says that lighthouses and navigational buoys are still enormously important.
Though they may be used currently “in a secondary sense”, there is every possibility, with the level of international conflict, that they will be needed as a primary aid, he warns.
Dun Laoghaire Harbour's East Pier lighthouse on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat
This is not just for yachts and fishing vessels and ferries, but also for the very large vessels passing the Irish coast, he explains. An incident involving one of these large ships could have “catastrophic consequences” for the Irish coastal environment.
Capt McClenahan, who first went to sea with Irish Shipping at the age of 15, spoke to Wavelengths.
He recalls his involvement in the intensive search by the Irish Lights vessel Granuaile for the crew and wreckage from the Irish Coast Guard Rescue 116 helicopter, how he discovered afterwards that he knew the late co-pilot Capt Mark Duffy - and he pays tribute to Irish Coast Guard crews for their selfless and highly technical work.
His interview is below.
