ASGARD II

ASGARD II was the Irish national sail training vessel, designed as a brigantine, and proudly built in Arklow, Co.Wicklow by Jack Tyrrell.

A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully rigged foremast and at least two sails on the mainmast and, in this case, a gaff rigged sail behind the mast. Skillfully built, she was commissioned on the 7th March 1981.

She was named after the original ASGARD, a two-masted yacht which smuggled weapons for the Irish Volunteers in 1914. Many years later, prior to the arrival of ASGARD II, I recall seeing her visiting Wicklow in the early 1970s as a sail training ship skippered by Captain Eric Healy. He eventually took command of the newer ship and served on her until his retirement.

The vessel was owned by the Irish State and was operated by Coiste an Asgard (a founding member of Sail Training International). ASGARD II had a traditional carved wooden figurehead on her bow depicting the pirate queen, Granuaile, from ancient Irish folklore.

During her 27 years of service to the nation, she had trained many young and older people, developing among them a great sense of skill in sailing and the teamwork involved. As a result, ASGARD II  was regarded as a national treasure, and was also highly regarded internationally, due to her exceptional performances in the annual Tall Ships Races.

Sadly, ASGARD II sank in the Bay of Biscay on 11th September 2008, some 20 nautical miles southwest of Belle-Ile-en-Mer, a French island off the coast of Brittany, while on passage from Falmouth to La Rochelle. As was revealed in a report published several years later, the ship had collided with a submerged object. After the ASGARD II started taking on water, the 5 crew members and 20 trainees were safely evacuated, as the tanker, HALDOZ and the cargo vessel, ARKLOW VENUS stood by assisting two French lifeboats in the area.

By the end of 2008, a plan to raise the ship was put to the Irish Government as the vessel was reported to be in relatively good condition on the seabed, but this proposal was seriously undermined by the then Minister of Defence, Willie O Dea, whose hesitancy on the matter was deeply regrettable. As a result of this, the two salvage feasibility surveys that had been commissioned came to nothing because all the available weather windows were wasted for when a salvage could have been possible. In 2010, a private team of Irish divers recovered a number of artifacts from the wreck, such as the ship's bell and steering wheel.

As this stylish sailing vessel had become a regular visitor to Wicklow Port, I realised that she would make a really nice addition to my slowly expanding pier murals gallery. In 1984, the paint and brushes found a spot further out the pier and my mural of ASGARD II finally graced the wall, much to the delight of regular pier walkers and ASGARD II's visiting crews. She has been on the wall over 40 years now and has just undergone a major paint overhaul.

On one of her visits to the port in the late 1990s, I was offered the opportunity for a short trip to Dun Laoghaire by the then-skipper, Captain Tom McCarthy, which I very much appreciated. For me, it is a treasured memory as I really enjoyed the short voyage and the teamwork involved.

From my point of view, and that of many other people I know, the tragic loss of this elegant vessel was a sad day for Ireland and also for sail training here. She might have been a small ship, but she had a big heart! Worse still, she has never been replaced - a black mark against our island nation!

Herein are 3 pictures relating to this posting:

Photo1 was recently taken following a major retouching by me of my Asgard II mural.

Photo 2 was taken by me on a long zoom shot from the top Murrough car park in May 2008. After the loss of the ASGARD II several months later, this photo became very important to me. It would have been the ship's second last visit to the port. I had one awful problem with the initial photo, as there were two large fibreglass yachts moored astern of the ASGARD II, and they somewhat wrecked the composition! I then undertook some editing using a Microsoft tool on my computer which took over 12 hours in total, spaced over several days. I eventually got rid of the offending blemishes - and without Photoshop! I was very happy with the end result.

Photo 3 is courtesy of Zeglarz on Wikipedia, with his beautiful image of ASGARD II under sail, taken on my birthday in August 2007.