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Displaying items by tag: Cobh Titanic 100

#ISLAND NEWS – A beacon is due to be lit early this afternoon (2 – 3pm) on Cape Clear Island, marking the 100th anniversary today of the RMS Titanic's departure from Cobh (Queenstown) where the doomed liner continued on her maiden voyage into the Atlantic.

The beacon at Fiona's Land is accessible by a walking trail and is where the Naval Service L.E. Aisling (P23) is to recreating the liner's voyage by passing off the southern side of the Co. Cork island.

For information on island life, activities and events, follow the Cape Clear Ferry blog HERE.

Published in Island News

#COBH TITANIC 100President Michael D Higgins attended a ceremony in Cobh, Co Cork this afternoon to mark the 100th anniversary of Titanic's maiden voyage.

The liner's last port of call was to Cobh (then Queenstown) and was where the last passengers boarded the White Star Line's liner.

The tribute, part of Cobh's Titanic 100 programme of commemorative events, saw a naval fleet review and a flyover from the Irish Air Corps. For more the Irish Examiner has a report.

Published in Titanic

About Commander Bill King, Solo Circumnavigator

William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving submarine commander in the Second World War - in charge of the British Navy's T-class Telemachus that sank a Japanese sub in the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Sumatra, in 1944.

Decorated many times for his service by the end of the war, King became a trailblazing solo sailor.

At the age of 58, he was the oldest participant in The Sunday Times Golden Globe Race sailing Galway Blazer II, a junk-rigged schooner he designed himself.

After a number of abortive attempts, including an incident with "a large sea creature", he finally completed his solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1973.

Beyond his aquatic escapades, King settled with his wife Anita (who died in 1984, aged 70) at Oranmore Castle outside Galway after the war, where he later developed a pioneering organic farm and garden to help tackle his wife's asthma.

The round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King died on Friday, 21 September, 2012, aged 102.