Cause of Cork fishing vessel's sinking unknown

The Marine Casualty Investigation Board's (MCIB) report into the sinking of the west Cork fishing vessel St Gervase with four crew on board in November 2000, has been unable to determine the cause of the accident.

The report, which is one of a series released this week by the (MCIB), says it was possible that the vessel was making way at its normal steaming speed of eight or nine knots when it steamed into the cliff close to Mizen Head and sank. All four Castletownbere-based fishermen on board - skipper Gary Kane, Jacques Biger, Kieran Harrington and Timothy Angland - lost their lives, and the bodies of two of the crew, Mr Kane and Mr Biger, are still missing.

The report says that winds were north-west force three to five and visibility was good with a rough sea state when the 64-foot wooden vessel left Castletownbere at 1 a.m. on November 23rd, 2000, bound for fishing grounds south of the Fastnet Rock. At 2.55 a.m, tracer signals from the vessel's emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) were picked up and efforts were made to contact the vessel. The wreck of the vessel was found by the Baltimore lifeboat off Mizen Head at 6.40 a.m. the following day. The Naval patrol ship LE Aoife found a liferaft on the surface which was still attached by a painter to the vessel below.

Navigational equipment on board appeared to be in good working order, and whatever took place on the bridge that night is "shrouded in obscurity" since none of the crew survived, the MCIB report says.

There was not enough time to raise the alarm or to launch the liferaft. Weather conditions precluded diving on the wreck some hours after the initial discovery. By the time the weather had eased the vessel was so badly damaged that it was impossible to determine the cause of sinking.

The separate MCIB report into the loss of a crewman overboard the Irish fishing vessel Dun Eochalla in the Celtic Sea on March 3rd, 2000, found that the 24-year-old man who died, Maurice Swaine, of Cahir, Borris-on-Ossory, Co Laois, had started fishing in August 1998 and had been on board the vessel for two weeks when the accident happened.

The vessel was owned by Co Wexford fleet owner Mr Brendan McGrath, of Duncannon. Mr Swaine was not known to have any formal seagoing qualifications, and was lost overboard when his leg became entangled in the bag rope as part of the vessel's fishing gear.

Weather was not good at the time, and the skipper, Philip Mitchell, made a brave attempt to rescue Mr Swaine. Rescue services were contacted, but to date his body has not been recovered.

The MCIB report into the collision between the French fishing vessel Rohellan and the Irish fishing vessel Oileann Cleire on May 15th, 1999, off west Cork found that the French vessel was not keeping a proper lookout. There were no fatalities.

The investigation into the sinking of the Irish fishing vessel, Tamarisk, off Dursey island, Co Cork, on April 29th, 2000, found that the crew were not constantly monitoring the vessel's position when it drifted on rocks. The two crew were rescued by a local small boat owner, Mr Frank Sheehan.