#OBITUARY - The Sunday Independent paid tribute this past weekend to round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King, who died last Friday 21 September aged 102.
William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving commander of a submarine in the Second World War - in charge of the British Navy's T-class Telemachus that sank a Japanese sub in the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Sumatra, in 1944.
Decorated many times for his service by the end of the war, King went on to become a trailblazing solo sailor.
At the age of 58, he was the oldest participant in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race sailing Galway Blazer II, a junk rigged schooner he designed himself.
After a number of abortive attempts, including an incident with "a large sea creature", he finally completed his solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1973.
Beyond his aquatic escapades, King settled with his wife Anita (who died in 1984, aged 70) at Oranmore Castle outside Galway after the war, where he later developed a pioneering organic farm and garden to help tackle his wife's asthma.
The Sunday Independent has much more on the story HERE.
