Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 22 Nov 1978

Vol. 309 No. 9

Written Answers. - Shipping Casualties.

340.

Mr. Quinn

asked the Minister for Tourism and Transport if his Department have a list of all Irish shipping incidents that have occurred in Irish coastal waters in the last 15 years; if so, if he will give the following information in respect of each incident (1) the date and location; (2) the number of vessels involved; (3) the damage to vessels; (4) the loss of life; (5) injuries received as a result of the incident; (6) the involvement of the lifeboat services or the marine rescue units of the Defence Forces; (7) environmental damage, if any, to the Irish coastline; and (8) the formal contact that took place, if any, between the master of the ship and the owners of the ship with his Department.

Minister for Tourism and Transport (Mr. Faulkner)

The attached statement gives the information requested in respect of all shipping casualties in Irish territorial waters reported to my Department from 1 January 1963 to date which involved (a) loss of vessels involved in incident, and/or (b) loss of life, and/or (c) injuries, and/or (d) environmental damage to the Irish coastline.

There were in addition many relatively minor shipping casualties reported to my Department which did not involve any of the occurrences at (a), (b), (c) and (d) above.

Details of oil spillage from ships at the Gulf oil terminal at Bantry Bay during the period in question are also attached.

Harbour authorities have powers under the Harbours Act and the Oil Pollution of the Sea Acts to initiate legal proceedings arising from oil spillages within their harbours without reference to me.

Following is the statement:

1964

Vessel	Date and location	Damage to vessel	Lives lost	Injuries	Rescue services involved	Environmental damage	Formal contact with Department
Yves Jean	1/1/64	driven ashore and	nil	none reported	CLSS	none	Shipping casualty report
Gildas	Pettit Bay Co. Wexford	wrecked					through ROW
Jan Brons	11/3/64 Ardnamult Head, Co. Waterford	grounded and holed	nil	,,	CLSS, RNLI	,,	Examination on Oath (Section 517 of MSA 1894)
Herring	11/4/64 Dungarvan	destroyed by fire	nil	,,	—	,,	Shipping casualty report through ROW
Beal Tairbeirt	28/6/64 near Loop Head	vessel sank	1	,,	MRCC, RNLI, CLSS, Gardai	,,	Preliminary Inquiry under Section 465 of MSA 1894
				1965
Mollia	11/6/65 Galway Bay	sank after fire	nil	none reported	—	none	Preliminary Inquiry under Section 465 of MSA 1894
Hibicus (launch) and Polchow	25/12/65 Cork	Hibicus broke moorings and sank after collision with Polchow	nil	,,	—	,,	Shipping Casualty report through ROW
				1966
Shlesien	19/2/66 Hook Head, Waterford	driven on rocks in storm and wrecked	nil	none reported	CLSS	none	Shipping Casualty report through ROW
Nelly	20/11/66 Kinsale	grounded and wrecked	nil	,,	—	,,	Shipping Casualty report through ROW
				1967
Shapinsay	7/11/67 Hook Head, Co. Waterford	driven on rocks by gale and wrecked	nil	none reported	CLSS	none	Shipping Casualty report through ROW
Ferry No. 6	6/11/67 R. Liffey	sank after collision with Slieve Bawn	nil	,,	—	,,	Preliminary Inquiry under Section 465 of MSA 1894
				1968
Sea Flower	21-22/12/68 Ardgroom, Co. Kerry	struck reef and sank	5	none	MRCC, Gardaí, RNLI	none	Preliminary Inquiry under Section 465 of MSA 1894
				1969
Red Bank	29/6/69 Galway Bay	vessel capsized and sank	9	none reported	Gardaí, CLSS	none	Preliminary Inquiry under Section 465 of MSA 1894
				1970
Fishing Boat (No Name)	3/5/70 off Skerries	vessel sank	3	none	Gardaí, RNLI, Air Corps	none	Investigation by Marine Survey Service
Marie Avril	22/11/70 Cork	fire damage	1	none reported	Fire Brigade	none	Report under Section 385 MSA 1894
Oranmore	20/2/70 Brandon Point, Co. Kerry	grounded—later refloated	1	none reported	Gardaí, MRCC, CLSS, RNLI	none	Preliminary Inquiry under Section 465 of MSA 1894
Glenmalure	25/11/70 Slade, Co. Wexford	vessel sank	1	none reported	RNLI, CLSS	none	Preliminary Inquiry under Section 465 of MSA 1894
				1971
St. Kevin	4/8/71 south of Ballymacaw Co. Waterford	vessel sprang leak and sank	nil	none reported	—	none	Shipping Casualty report through ROW
			1972
Sealgaire	16/1/72 Fenit	blown from moorings — vessel total loss	nil	nil	—	none	Shipping Casualty report through ROW
			1973
Officer	13/9/73 Waterford	sank at moorings	nil	nil	—	none	Report by Supt. MMO
			1974
Jadestar Glory	16/1/74 Cahore Point	stranded—total loss	nil	nil	Gardaí, RNLI CLSS	none	Shipping Casualty report through ROW
Irish Trader	1/2/74 Drogheda	stranded—total loss	nil	nil	—	none	Shipping Casualty report through ROW
			1975
Evelyn Marie	7/1/75 Rathlin O Beirne Island Co. Donegal	sank	6	nil	MRCC, Gardaí, Air Corps, RNLI, CLSS	none	Preliminary Inquiry under Section 465 of MSA 1894
Michael	13/1/75 Bretton Point Co. Waterford	beached after engine failure, vessel abandoned	nil	nil	RNLI, CLSS	none	Preliminary Inquiry under Section 465 of MSA 1894
Angmering	29/1/75 Galway	grounded and broken up	nil	nil	nil	none	Shipping Casualty Report by ROW
Ocean Searcher	28/1/75 Tramore	driven ashore— later refloated	1	nil	Gardaí, RNLI	—	Preliminary Inquiry under Section 465 of MSA 1894
Lighter ‘XXXXX’	26/9/75 Bantry	engine room explosion	1	3	Fire Brigade	none	Preliminary Inquiry under Section 465 MSA 1894
			1976
Belrose	6/12/76 Courtmacsherry	destroyed by fire and sank	nil	nil	MRCC, RNLI	nil	Shipping Casualty report through ROW
Carraig Una	23/11/76 Rathlin O' Beirne Island Co. Donegal	sank	5	nil	MRCC, Gardai, RNLI, Air Corps, CLSS	nil	Preliminary Inquiry under Section 465 of MSA 1894
			1977
Prelude	17/9/77 Tory Island	Foundered on rocks— total loss	nil	2	RNLI	nil	Shipping Casualty report through ROW
Kilmore Quay Lifeboat	24/12/77 Bannow Bay	vessel capsized and recovered	1	none reported	RNLI, CLSS	nil	Report from RNLI
			1978
Heather Bell	25/3/78 Nohoval, Co. Cork	vessel beached and broke up	nil	nil	nil	nil	Shipping Casualty report from ROW
Abreviations:	MSA 1894	Merchant Shipping Act, 1894.
	ROW	Receiver of Wreck.
	MRCC	Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre.
	RNLI	Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
	CLSS	Coast Life Saving Service.
	MMO	Mercantile Marine Office.

Oil Spillage Incidents — Bantry

Vessel	Date and location	Damage to vessel	Lives lost	Injuries	Rescue services involved	Environmental damage	Formal contact with Department
Universe Japan	28/1/70	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	40 gallons spillage	Report by Gulf Oil Ltd.
Phillipine Sea	10/11/72	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	150 gallons spillage	,,
Bering Sea	13/3/73	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	350 gallons spillage	,,
Vitta	10/7/73	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	25 gallons spillage	,,
Universe Japan	17/7/74	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	170 gallons spillage	,,
Port Hawkesbury	22/7/74	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	120 gallons spillage	,,
Universe Kuwait	24/8/74	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	80 gallons spillage	,,
Universe Leader	22/10/74	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	2,500 tons spillage	,,
Afran Zodiac	10/1/75	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	451 tons spillage	,,
Universe Portugal	21/7/76	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	750 gallons spillage	,,