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Displaying items by tag: Swedish Navy Training Falken

#TALL SHIPS – It has been more than a fortnight ago since the spectacle of Dublin Tall Ships Race Festival's 'Parade of Sail' took place, and today the last participant, the Swedish Navy's Falken, made a southbound departure of Dublin Bay, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The last large tallship to depart the festival was the Italian Navy's Amerigo Vespucci, leaving the smaller Swedish gaff schooner to remain moored along the Liffey quays until her departure this afternoon. The B-class tallship built in 1947, is based out of Karlskrona and her crew of 13 officers and 29 trainees are currently heading for Porto.

It is ironic that on the same day of Falken's farewell, the Norwegian tallship Christian Radich is currently heading northbound in the Irish Sea as previously reported today. She is to visit the capital, where she called last year to publicise in advance this year's Tall Ships Race Festival.

Published in Tall Ships

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.