APPLAUSE ERUPTED through the arrivals lounge of Dublin airport yesterday afternoon, as the crew of the Asgard II reached the arrivals hall following a long journey which began at 5.30am.
“We had to get a ferry from the island then the TGV train to Paris, then a flight to Dublin, and I have to head to Galway,” said 16-year-old Holly Clarke, a trainee on the ship.
Clarke, a transition year student at the Mercy Convent in Tuam, Co Galway, said she received her Junior Certificate results just hours before the ship went down off the Bay of Biscay early on Thursday.
Holly Byrne (18), from Dundrum, Dublin, said she was “looking forward to going home and having dinner with my family”. Ms Byrne, who will shortly begin a science degree in Trinity College Dublin, said: “We were woken up at 3am, and didn’t know what was happening. I had just finished my watch and gone to bed when I heard the alarm sounding”.
All crew were in life rafts within five minutes, she said, with lifeboats and a helicopter coming to their rescue a short time later.
“All the people on the island were really nice, especially the mayor, with everyone giving us clothes and shoes,” she added.
Ms Byrne said she would be staying away from the water for a while, but would definitely sail again.
Earlier, as she awaited the arrival of her daughter Katie, Jean Campbell recalled how she was a trainee on the inaugural sailing of the tall ship. Ms Campbell said: “I was on the ship’s first sailing, and my daughter was on its last – I launched it and she sank it,” she joked.
Ms Campbell said she didn’t believe her daughter at first. “She rang when the ship was sinking, but she was very calm so I thought she was messing.”
In the arrivals hall a short time later, Katie Campbell said she didn’t have time to think when the ship began taking water.
“No-one on board was scared, we had practised everything and knew what stations to go to,” she said.
Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea, who welcomed the captain and crew at the airport, said an investigation had begun into the ship’s sinking, but as yet there was no timeframe for the raising of the vessel. Mr O’Dea said counselling will be made available to the crew.
President Mary McAleese yesterday praised the captain and crew for an orderly evacuation. “In what must have been a most difficult and challenging experience they have all survived and thankfully a major tragedy has been averted.”
Anne Lucey adds: There have been calls for the Department of Defence and the Naval Service to consider the Jeanie Johnston as a replacement for the Asgard II .
The replica famine ship was paid for largely by State bodies and the local authorities in Kerry.
It was built in Tralee but was sold for €2.7 million to the Dublin Docklands Development Authority in 2005 as part of a rescue project negotiated by Kerry Group. Used as a famine history museum, for corporate entertainment and for sail training, it has crossed the Atlantic and has sailed to France and Spain.
Jim Finucane, former chairman of the project to build the three-masted barque, said yesterday the Jeanie Johnston had been a millennium project and had involved politicians, shipwrights and young people from the Republic and Northern Ireland.
“The Jeanie Johnston is a Class A seagoing vessel. It can hold 28 trainees and 12 crew. It was designed to be a national sail training vessel and this would fulfil its destiny,” Mr Finucane said.
Fine Gael Kerry North TD Jimmy Deenihan said the Jeanie Johnston was a suitable replacement and should be considered as a national sail training vessel.
“The Government should approach the Dublin Docklands Development Authority with a view to using the Jeanie Johnston for training purposes, at least on a temporary basis that may lead to a more permanent arrangement.”
Although not commenting officially, key personnel in the docklands authority said the ship was being used for sail training and pleasure sailing and the authority would not have a difficulty with the Jeanie Johnston being used for national sail training.