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Displaying items by tag: Mace Head

#SEARCH AND RESCUE - A body was recovered yesterday during the search for a 43-year-old fisherman missing off the Galway coast, as RTÉ News reports.

The body was discovered near the shoreline of St Macdara’s island off Carna, some distance from the empty currach found early yesterday morning at Inis Mór in the Aran Islands to the south.

The missing man, named locally as Gerry Folan or Gearoid O'Cualáin, was last seen rowing a currach from the Mace Head area around 5pm on Monday evening.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, a major air and sea search and rescue operation was launched, assisted by Irish Coast Guard helicopters and the Air Corps Casa patrol craft.

RTÉ News has more on the story HERE.

Published in Currachs

#SEARCH AND RESCUE - The Irish Times reports of a major air and sea search and rescue operation for a 43-year-old fisherman missing off the Galway coast.

Irish Coast Guard helicopters based at Sligo and Shannon joined the overight search for the man, who was last seen rowing a currach from the Mace Head area around 5pm yesterday.

It is understood that a currach was found in the area this morning.

The search resumed at first light, with the Air Corps Casa patrol craft searching the area, and coastguard and lifeboat crews set to rejoin the operation.

Published in Rescue

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.