Garda divers and search teams will today begin a thorough search of the interior of the recovered trawler, the Maggie B, in Arklow, Co Wicklow, in the hope of finding the remains of two of its crew who perished when it sank in 2006.
Garda searchers will also recommence a search of a small number of compartments aboard the Pere Charles amid fading hope of finding the bodies of any of the five crew who were lost when it sank earlier this year.
The Maggie B, which sank five miles off Hook Head in Co Wexford on March 29th, 2006, with the loss of skipper Glynn Cott (30) and Polish crewman Jan Sankowskis (45), was towed to Arklow yesterday and moored alongside the quay where it will be searched by gardaí today.
The vessel was raised from the seabed off Hook Head last Monday by salvage experts, Irish Diving Contractors. Gardaí carried out a surface search of the vessel but it was decided to wait until it was brought to Arklow before searching the interior of the steel-hulled trawler.
Meanwhile, members of the Garda Water Unit spent almost four hours on Saturday searching interior compartments on the Pere Charles. They recovered a number of personal items but failed to find any trace of the five crewmen who died when it sank on January 10th.
The trawler was returning with a full hold to Dunmore East when it sank. The bodies of skipper Tom Hennessy (32), his uncle Pat Hennessy (48), Billy O'Connor (50), Pat Coady (28) and Andriy Dyrin (30) from Ukraine were never recovered.
Gardaí searched most of the vessel on Saturday after it was lifted into a cradle on the quayside in Arklow and plan to search a small number of remaining compartments today but hopes of finding any of the bodies are slim.
Meanwhile, the Department of Transport says it has "full confidence" in the capability of Irish investigators in the Marine Casualty Investigation Board to establish why the two trawlers sank off the southeast coast.
The department was responding to a call by Fr Peadar O'Callaghan of Ballycotton, Co Cork, for Britain's Marine Accident Investigation Branch to become involved in one of the official inquiries.
In a letter to newspapers, Fr O'Callaghan, who has supported the Cott family in their campaign to have the Maggie B raised, said the vessel had been involved in "several incidents", including a capsize when registered as the Gilsea in British waters.
He said the families of the two men lost would "feel more confident" if the assisted Irish investigators with the Marine Accident Investigation Branch. The Marine Casualty Investigation Board was a "part-time body" and "still in its infancy", Fr O'Callaghan said.
A department spokesman said the investigation board was not in its infancy and had produced a series of reports since its establishment seven years ago.