Search Results for 'North Atlantic'

Ford Ireland has become a partner of the Titanic 100 Cobh 2012 centenary project with the provision of a pair of specially liveried new Galaxy models that will be used during the year-long commemoration.

Researchers at NUI Galway’s Ryan Institute are at the centre of conservation efforts in relation to mining for precious minerals at the depths of our oceans. In this new ‘gold rush’, the ecological assessment of the effects of mining operations will be key to sustainably exploiting resources at these very important habitats, according to organisers of a major workshop next week.

Ford Ireland has become a partner of the Titanic 100 Cobh 2012 centenary project with the provision of a pair of specially liveried new Galaxy models that will be used during the year-long commemoration.

Last September I wrote a number of Diary entries on the wonderful reception that Galway extended to the survivors of the SS Athenia, torpedoed off the Donegal coast on September 3 1939, the very first day of the war. The ship was sunk by Fritz Julius Lemp, the commander of the U-30. The Athenia was obviously a passenger boat on its way with refugees from Europe to Canada. This wasn’t the start to the war that the German government wanted. Initially it denied that any of its submarines sank the Athenia, and suggested that it was sunk by the British on orders from Winston Churchill in the hope of getting America into the war.

An American deep-ocean shipwreck exploration company is in for a major windfall after making the historic discovery of more than $200 million worth of silver which went down aboard a World War II British cargo steamer torpedoed by a German U-boat as it headed for the safety of Galway harbour to refuel.

While Galway was caring for some of the survivors of the SS Athenia, torpedoed off the Donegal coast on September 3 1939, America, Britain and Canada unleashed a vitriolic attack on Germany for sinking a passenger ship. Included among her 1,418 passengers and crew were more than 300 Americans. A total of 117 people were killed, some unfortunately as they were being lifted from the sea by the rescue boats including the Knute Nelson (which had brought 430 survivors into Galway), and three British warships, the HMS Electra, HMS Fame and the HMS Escort, which had rushed to the scene. Among the dead were 28 American citizens.

After sifting through hundreds of nominations the winners of the Rehab Galway People of the Year Awards have been chosen and are due to be honoured at a glittering gala banquet and presentation at the Clayton Hotel on Saturday April 2.

Galway’s new world record holder, oarsman Ray Carroll, returns to his home city tonight (Thursday) after 43 days rowing across the Atlantic.

On the evening that France and Britain declared war on Germany, September 3 1939, the 13,500-ton liner SS Athenia, chartered by the Cunard Line, and bound for Montreal with 1,418 passengers and crew was torpedoed, without warning, 250 miles northwest of Malin Head in the North Atlantic*. The following day the Norwegian vessel, Knute Nelson, was steaming towards Galway with 367 shocked and injured survivors, and asked that the city be prepared to receive them. Other survivors were picked up by British naval vessels and brought elsewhere for treatment, but in total 112 passengers and crew were killed in the attack, 28 of them Americans sailing for home as war was declared in Europe.

I'm not what you would call the sailing type. In fact, my impression of the sport was one that it was the preserve of the wealthy. So I travelled to Galway for the visit of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet to see what all the hullaballoo was about.