The Honeydew II
I was thinking of Ger Bohan there… Some people depart and after a while the image you had of them becomes a bit foggy in your head, but Ger had a face that was memorable and it springs to mind easily, I can still see him plain as day. I remember he used to wear those thick-knit fisherman’s jumpers too. Kinsale will never be the same and it missing one of its prominent fishermen.
Himself and Polish crewman Tomasz Jagla were both lost when his Trawler, the Honeydew II went down off Mine Head in Co Waterford in January 2007 on a stormy night. Two of his Lithuanian crewmen, Viktor Losev and Vladamir Kostyr were rescued after spending 20 hours adrift in a life raft.
The VMS was due to send its next signal again at 1.36am on January 12th and then at 3.36am and so on, but its failure to send these signals were not noticed by the Naval Service monitoring the VMS at Haulbowline.
This was on a night when it was blowing gale force 9 or 10 and just hours after one trawler had already gone down (The Pere Charles sank off Hook Head claiming the lives of all five fishermen on board, both boats sank within 20 miles of each other and they only about four hours apart)
This was on a night when it was blowing gale force 9 or 10 and just hours after one trawler had already gone down (The Pere Charles sank off Hook Head claiming the lives of all five fishermen on board, both boats sank within 20 miles of each other and they only about four hours apart)
Every fishing vessel is equipped with a VMS (Vessel Monitoring System) which sends out a signal from the trawlers every two hours stating its position, course and speed and the last such transmission from the Honeydew II was when it was six miles off Mine Head at 11.36pm on January 11th 2007.
A Naval Service spokesman said the VMS was introduced under EU regulations to monitor fishing activity in EU waters and was never intended as an emergency service for trawlers. While I understand this statement, it doesn’t sway my belief that on a stormy night the lads at Haulbowline could have been a little more vigilant. I mean, on a human level; to keep a watch out for your fellow man, because you can, because you are sitting in front of equipment that makes this possible, then why not? Because it’s not intended as an emergency service???
The last radio contact with Ger was at 11.55pm on January 11th. The search operation for the Honeydew II was only launched about 6pm on January 12th
If the Naval Base had spotted at 1.36am or at 3.36am that the Honeydew wasn’t sending a VMS signal, the alarm could have been raised and the Search Operation could have got underway a lot earlier.
It may not have changed the outcome, but it would have meant that the two Lithuanian lads wouldn’t have had to spend 20 hours in a life raft and it may not have taken twelve days to locate the position where the boat went down.
Despite weeks of searching, the bodies of Ger Bohan and Tomasz Jagla were never found.
Ger Bohan
Tomasz Jagla
