Crew from Ireland's national training vessel had to rescued from the Bay of Biscay early this morning after their ship started sinking.

A total of 20 trainee sailors and five crew members were on a ten-day trip from Falmouth, in Cornwall, to the French port of La Rochelle when their traditionally-rigged ship started taking on water.

Crew from the Asgard II were evacuated by lifeboat and picked up by a French coastguard vessel. They were taken to Belle Ile, a small island in the Bay of Biscay. All are said to be safe and well.

The ship had been due to arrive in La Rochelle on Saturday, and was approximately 100 miles away when it sank.

A spokesperson for the Irish Defence Department said that they did not know yet why the ship started to take on water and that there would be an investigation.

Willie O‘Dea said: “I discussed this with the Captain and the truth of the matter is nobody knows yet. Presumably they would have felt it.

“On the other hand the Captain said to me that the amount of water that came in and the speed at which the water accumulated indicated something like that, but we just cannot be sure at the moment."

Ireland‘s Ambassador to France, Ann Anderson, is travelling from Paris to Belle-Ile to meet the crew and trainees who are all said to be in good spirits.

There had been hopes that the vessel could be saved, but by mid-morning it had sunk. It is understood the ship is lying in water anywhere from 70m to 90m deep which may hamper efforts to raise it from the seabed.

Weather conditions in the Bay of Biscay were described as moderate at the time the boat started taking on water.

The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs said officials from the Irish embassy in Paris would be travelling to meet those that had been rescued.

Although it is owned by the Irish Department of Defence, the Asgard II has a civilian crew and was built specifically for training young sailors. It has been sailing around the world since 1981 and regularly competes in the Tall Ships race.

The ship was named after the original Asgard, used in 1916 to deliver guns to Howth, a port on the coast north of Dublin, in the Irish war of independence.

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