'THE MAGGIE B 'LOOKS LIKE A GHOST SHIP IN THE MORNING LIGHT'

The sunken trawler the Maggie B looks like a ghost ship in the early-morning sunlight, as a Dutch barge crane raises it to the…

The sunken trawler the Maggie B looks like a ghost ship in the early-morning sunlight, as a Dutch barge crane raises it to the surface and hauls it closer to the shore, off Dunmore East, in Co Waterford, in November.

It must be a heart-rending moment for relatives of Glynn Cott, its 30-year-old skipper, and Jan Sankowski, its 45-year-old crewman, who died when the vessel sank in poor weather in March 2006.

Since then it has been lying on the seabed. As the huge barge moves along the coast, entering a patch of winter light at about 7am, I can clearly see, through a long telephoto lens, the detail of the deck and wheelhouse. The calm water behind the silhouetted trawler is in stark contrast to the sea that raged on the night of the tragedy.

Garda divers later search the Maggie B for the crew's bodies, as they do the Pere Charles, which is raised a few days later. It sank on January 10th with the loss of five lives: those of skipper Tom Hennessy, his uncle Pat Hennessy, Billy O'Connor, Pat Coady and Andriy Dyrin. No bodies are found.