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'The boat sank in minutes .. we held on to the life raft in the icy seas for 15 hours before we were rescued' HONEYDEW II SURVIVOR RECALLS HORROR.


Byline: By NICOLA TALLANT

A SURVIVOR of the doomed Honeydew II trawler has revealed he watched it sink in minutes as he clung clung  
v.
Past tense and past participle of cling.


clung
Verb

the past of cling

clung cling
 to a life raft.

Lithuanian sailor Person who navigates ships or assists in the conduct, maintenance, or service of ships.

Sailors have historically received special treatment under the law because of the nature of their work.
 Vladimir Koster was one of two men rescued by helicopter 15 hours later in a tragedy that cost Ger Bohan and Tomasz Jagla their lives.

He said his last memory of being on the boat was skipper skipper: see butterfly.
skipper

Any of some 3,000 lepidopteran species (family Hesperiidae) named for their fast (up to 20 mph, or 30 kph), darting flight.
 Ger desperately trying to call for help as the Cork-based boat began to go down.

In Souls Of The Sea, a documentary marking the first anniversary of the the Honeydew II and the Pere père  
n.
1. Used after a man's surname to distinguish a father from a son: Dumas père primarily wrote novels, while dramas occupied Dumas fils.

2.
 Charles sinkings, Vladimir revealed he still wonders why he survived one of the darkest nights in Irish maritime history Maritime history is a broad thematic element of global history. As an academic subject, it crosses the boundaries of standard disciplines, focusing on understanding mankind's various relationships to the oceans, seas, and major waterways of the globe. .

He said: "It was Force 10 and the waves were very big. It was a big storm.

"The boat was on autopilot and the boat was hit by a very big, strong wave.

"I woke up the rest and immediately we went for the life rafts. It was a matter of seconds and the boat began to sink. It took minutes for it to sink."

In a reconstruction of Vladimir's battle for life, the documentary details how he and fisherman Victor Losev managed to make it to a life raft as the vessel went down.

He said: "Victor was calling Ger to come out but Ger was trying to contact someone - to get a message out.

I don't know why because at this stage there was no time.

"I was shouting when I was in the water. We were holding on to the life raft, the boat was sinking. It sank as we held onto the life raft. We kept shouting from the life raft."

Eventually the pair had to zip up the raft as they realised Ger and Tomasz had not made it.

Vladimir recalled how they remained in the tiny boat for 15 hours desperately hoping for rescue.

He said: "Viktor was falling asleep and I was whistling to keep him awake.

We were talking and hoped we would be rescued. We were talking about what happened and why. We were talking about where Tom and Ger was.

"Yes, we did survive so I suppose it was only half of the tragedy it could have been. But why us? We survived but Ger and Tom?"

In the documentary, which will be screened on Thursday, Ger's widow Mary spoke of how the 39-year-old lived for his four children.

She said: "Ger was the type that would always come home no matter how bad things were or what scrape See scraping.  he had got in. He was completely devoted to the kids.

"That is all he had and that is all he wanted. He had no hobbies or other interests - he didn't have time for them.

He worked seven days a week. It was all for us - that is all he wanted."

Mary, from Kinsale, described how the night Ger was lost was the only time she had ever worried about him.

She said: "I had news that evening of the Pere Charles. It was the only night I ever had concerns about where he was."

And she reveals how Ger managed to wish his children a good night on the night his boat sank off Mine Head.

She said: "He actually phoned at nine and we were upstairs and the kids were going to bed. He went on the loudspeaker loudspeaker or speaker, device used to convert electrical energy into sound. It consists essentially of a thin flexible sheet called a diaphragm that is made to vibrate by an electric signal from an amplifier.  and he said goodnight to them and told them to say their prayers. I suppose at that point I had no great concern. It was wild out but I didn't think much about it."

Mary spoke again to Ger at midnight as she became more concerned about the weather.

He told her his trawler was just five miles from land and heading for home.

Anita Jagla, Tomasz's widow, told the documentary team she had decided to stay in Kinsale because she feels close her husband there.

She also described how locals had been very kind to her and her children since the tragedy.

In all seven fishermen died on January 10 - five of them on the Pere Charles.

Skipper Tom Hennessy, his uncle Pat Hennessy and crewmen Patrick Coady, Billy O'Connor and Andriy Dyrin were lost when it sank off Hook Head in Co Wexford.

Pat Coady's girlfriend Sarah Maher spoke of how their daughter Treasa still asks her dad for help.

She said: "She has no grave to go to.

She says prayers and brings flowers to the memorial wall. Even when her teddy gets in trouble she tells her dad to fix it."

SOULS Of The Sea is shown on RTE (1) See runtime engine.

(2) (Real-Time Executive) The operating system used in the HP 1000 series. See HP 1000.
1 at 10.10pm on Thursday, January 17.

news@irishmirror.ie

CAPTION(S):

SAVED: Vladimir Koster saw the Honeydew II go down; DEVOTED DAD: Skipper Ger Bohan
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Publication:The Mirror (London, England)
Date:Jan 14, 2008
Words:797
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