The trawler Père Charles, which sank off Hook Head in January claiming five lives, has been raised from the seabed.
The wreck of the Pere Charles trawler in which five men died off the coast of County Wexford, Ireland in January, is raised to the surface in Dunmore East harbour in County Waterford today.
The bodies of the five-man crew - skipper Tom Hennessy (32); his uncle, Pat Hennessy (48); Billy O'Connor (50); Pat Coady (27); and Andriy Dyrin (32) from the Ukraine - were never recovered after the trawler went down two miles from Dunmore East, Co Waterford.
Families of the five men who died are due at the scene where the recovery team is working to pump water out of the vessel.
Bad weather over the past two days had hampered the operation to raise the trawler from a depth of 35 metres. The boat had turned upside down and had to be rigged with special netting to help contain its contents.
Divers and the salvage team recommenced the operation at 7am today, and Pere Charles was raised at about 2.40pm.
A spokesman for the Irish Coast Guard told ireland.com there had been a slight difficulty with weather between 9am and 10am. Lifting began just before midday, but a problem arose with one of the "strops" used to rig the boat from underneath.
"It was put back on the seabed," the Coast Guard spokesman said. "It was anchored in about 12 metres of water at that stage."
Divers adjusted the strop and diving commenced at about 2.30pm. The vessel surfaced at about 2.40pm and at 3pm it was brought to the floating water line, or shallower water, the spokesman added.
"At the moment, we have pumps on board to pump out the remaining water," the Coast Guard spokesman said. "The families are due to visit the site within the next hour."
Asked whether any human remains had been found on the Père Charles , the spokesman said an initial search is under way but that a full search will take place later. The pumping is expected to finish by 5pm or 5.30pm.
Lulu Doyle, who was engaged to be married to Tom Hennessy this year, said yesterday: "It's just been a really tough year on a lot of people, and we are just hoping that this will bring us some closure. We're hoping the lads are still on the boat."