Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Department rejects appeal

#NaomEannaThe campaign to save the Ballycotton Lifeboat is secure however the fate of former Aran Islands ferry Naomh Éanna despite support of some T.D.'s to save her is according to The Irish Times rejected by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht as the vessel is due to be broken up by Waterways Ireland.

The department said that "the decision has not been taken lightly", but is "necessary because of the continuing serious risk posed by the vessel", which has been in Dublin's Grand Canal Basin for almost 30 years.

The ship, built in Dublin's Liffey Dockyard in 1956, served the Galway to Aran island sea route for 30 years, before being acquired from State owner CIÉ by the Irish Nautical Trust. It was laid up in 1986.

 

Published in Historic Boats

About Commander Bill King, Solo Circumnavigator

William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving submarine commander 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 became 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 round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King died on Friday, 21 September, 2012, aged 102.