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Displaying items by tag: Port pilot

The unsung role of port pilots has been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Galway harbourmaster Capt Brian Sheridan.

“Without the pilots, everything would stop - they really are a national asset,” Capt Sheridan has said.

Capt Sheridan was commenting as he confirmed that key supply lines are being kept open by ports during the pandemic.

"Without the pilots, everything would stop"

He said there had been an overwhelmingly positive response to the light beamed from Galway city’s Nimmo’s pier last weekend as part of the Shine-A-Light initiative broadcast on RTÉ television.

An aerial view of the beam, and of the illuminated port and city, was filmed by Electric Skyline (see vid below)

Published in Galway Harbour

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.