The findings of an investigation into the sinking of a fishing vessel off the west Cork coast in 2021 have been disputed by the company which owns the vessel.
The Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) report into the incident involving the 24-metre vessel, Ellie Adhamh, off Bull Rock on March 28th, 2021,says the sinking was due to a series of issues, including faulty equipment, lack of crew training, safety management and compliance.
Vessel owners R&E Fish Ltd of Wexford say the vessel sank after a collision with a Naval Service patrol ship which was trying to attach a towline the previous evening.
FV Ellie Adhamh was a fishing trawler (15-24 m) designed as a twin rig trawler and rigged for bottom trawling for prawns.
The vessel had been on a two-week trip fishing for prawns about 160 nautical miles off the Cork coast when it lost power as it was en route to Castletownbere on March 25th, 2021.
It continued on passage in the company of another vessel until its main emergency batteries died on March 26th.
When it began taking in water in deteriorating weather, pumps were dropped to it and the patrol ship LE George Bernard Shaw attempted to take it in tow.
The Naval Service has confirmed the two vessels were in contact during this procedure but stands by the report’s findings.
A tug which arrived the following day after the towline broke was unable to take it in tow – the seven crew having been airlifted to safety the previous evening.
The MCIB report – a revised version after an initial draft – identified 12 factors which contributed to “a very serious marine casualty”.
It said these included failure to provide a properly qualified and trained skipper and lack of crew training in emergencies, along with a defective waste discharge chute and failure to close all watertight openings.
The revised report includes extensive correspondence, including with vessel owners R&E Fish Ltd, which is in liquidation.
In its final letter in the report appendix, the company says “the vessel had little to no water aboard for 33hrs after the power was lost”.
“From the time of the power failure to the time that the Navy took the vessel under tow, the Ellie Ádhamh had travelled over 110nm towards the coast. The situation only began to deteriorate after the Navy collided with the Ellie Ádhamh,”the company says.
“The persons who reviewed the footage of the collision and decided that it could not be a causative factor in the sinking of the Ellie Ádhamh, should not be investigating marine casualties,”it says.
“The determination of the skipper of the Ellie Ádhamh and efforts of the crew were commendable, the skill from the skipper of the Monica 2 in quickly attaching a tow line was valiant, the efforts from Castletownbere RNLI, Rescue 115 and Rescue 117 were greatly appreciated,”it says.
“The offers from the Irish trawlers to take over the tow will never be forgotten, and the owners regret that they were stood down by the Navy,”the company says.
The full report is here
