Fermoy divers honoured for helping recover anchors of gunship Aud
DIVERS from the Fermoy-based Blackwater Sub Aqua Club have been honoured for their role in helping to recover two precious pieces of Irish history.
Members of the club were invited to the Cobh Heritage Centre for the official unveiling of an anchor from the Aud, which they had helped to raise to the surface from the murky depths at the mouth of Cork Harbour.
In honour of their efforts to raise two anchors back in 2012, one of which is now on display at the Heritage Centre, Cobh Tourism invited members of the Blackwater to be the guests of honour at the recent unveiling ceremony.
Team members carried out more than 30 dives on the wreck of the ship, the scuttling of which was one of the most pivotal events was one of the most pivotal events of 1916 outside of the capital.
Club PRO Catriona Matthews said the work was undertaken under very testing conditions with divers testing the limits of their training and considerable experience to the limit.
“Raising the anchors was by no means an easy task considering the underwater currents and the fact the Aud had been underwater for nearly a century and was in poor condition,” said Mr Barry.
“A lot of hard work and effort went into preparing the site for the lifting of the anchors, an operation that was performed under a Duchas licence. The anchors themselves were in surprisingly good condition and have been fully restored over the past three years by archaeologist Lar Dunne,” he added.
The other recovered anchor has gone on display in Fenit, Co Kerry.
Originally an English merchant vessel captured by the Germans in 1914, the Aud was renamed and disguised as a Norwegian freighter.
On April 9, 1916 the Aud, under the command of Captain Karl Spindler, had set sail from the Baltic port of Lübeck with an estimated 20,000 rifles, 1 million rounds of ammunition, 10 machine guns and giant ‘clockwork’ bombs to aid the Easter Rising. Most of the arms had been captured by the Germans following the rout of Russian forces at the battle of Tannenburg.
The ship was due to have met Roger Casement and others in Tralee Bay, but due to a combination of factors including poor communications the transfer of arms did not take place.
Captain Spindler attempted to escape into the deeper waters of the Atlantic but was intercepted by a blockade of Royal Navy ships.
Captain Spindler subsequently scuttled the Aud at the mouth of Cork Harbour as she was being escorted by the Royal Navy ships into Queenstown (Cobh).