A THICK, grey mist shrouded the rugged Beara Peninsula and a light drizzle petered out as a cortege of hearses left Castletownbere yesterday evening and wound its way through Adrigole and the tourist village of Glengarriffe to Bantry General Hospital.
Leaving the town shortly before 8pm, the cortege carried the remains of three friends who had gone fishing earlier in the day.
As news of the tragedy spread last night, and people along the Beara Peninsula learned who had perished, the feelings of many in the area were summed up by local Glengarriffe parish priest Fr Padraig Kenneally.
“People are just beginning to hear the news – it’s a terrible tragedy for the area. All three men would be well known. Any loss of life is a tragedy but the loss of three lives at sea is worse.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the deceased – it’s a real blow for the local community, but it’s an even more devastating shock for the families of those who died,” he said.
The three deceased were last night named locally as Richard Harman from Glengarriffe, and Germans Mike Schmidt who lived in Glengarriffe, and Wolfgang Schnoder, who lived in Bantry. All three were in their late 60s.
A fourth man, American Ed Dzito (46), who is from Connecticut but has been living in Glengarriffe for some years, survived the tragedy and was last night being treated at Bantry General Hospital where his condition was described as stable.
Former mayor of Cork County Cllr Noel Harrington from Castletownbere said the tragedy had cast a shadow over the area as people heard first that three people had died and then learned the identities of the deceased.
“People are shocked and stunned. Here you had four friends out fishing in an area that would generally be regarded as a safe spot on a calm day and for this to happen and three of them to lose their lives is desperately sad.”
It is understood that inspectors from the Marine Casualty Investigation Board are due to travel to west Cork today to begin their inquiries into the cause of the fire which forced the four men to abandon ship.
Gardaí under Supt John Quilter of Bantry Garda station are also set to carry out an investigation with a view to preparing a file on the tragedy for the Coroner’s Court.
The incident happened around 5pm when a fire broke out on board Mr Schmidt’s 25ft pleasure cruiser Castaway as the four friends were on an angling trip some four miles south of Roancarrig lighthouse in Adrigole Harbour in Bantry Bay.
It is understood the fire broke out in the console area behind the steering wheel but it was unclear last night what caused the fire.
The four were found in the water later by an Irish Coast Guard Sikorski helicopter which had been in the area.
The helicopter had been tasked to rescue a father and daughter stranded on nearby Hungry Hill but had been unable to take off due to heavy mist and was on the helipad in Castletownbere when the alarm was raised.
Castletownbere RNLI Lifeboat had also been tasked to assist and arrived on the scene shortly before 6pm. However the fire on board Castaway was well under way and they were unable to prevent the vessel from sinking.
All three bodies were due to be transferred last night from Bantry to Cork University Hospital where pathologist Dr Declan Gilsenan will carry out postmortems today.