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A US NAVAL ship, understood to be working on and maintaining secretive undersea US military equipment, has spent a week in an Irish port.
The MV Gary Chouest spent last week in Cork Harbour and at a quayside in the town of Cobh.
The support vessel was located at the Cruise Terminal at the Deep Water Quay in the harbour town for several days.
The ship is a civilian craft but sources have said it is linked to US Government maintenance contracts of a secretive undersea array in the deep Atlantic off the Irish Coast.
Multiple sources, both in Ireland and abroad, have said that the ship, and a number of other craft, are involved in maintaining and servicing undersea listening devices and cabling for the US Government.
When we contacted the US Government for comment in regard to the presence of the vessel in Irish waters we were told that the US Department of War, formally known as the Department of Defense, would respond to our query. To date they have not issued a statement.
We also contacted Irish Government departments including Transport as well as the Department of the Marine who referred our query to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The Department, in a statement, described the vessel as a “US naval vessel”.
Maritime sources in Cork said that they were told that the vessel was either in on a courtesy visit or an emergency visit to Ireland.
It is understood from our enquiries that the vessel does not have a licence to survey the seabed in the Irish exclusive Economic Zone.
She was tied up at the Deep Water Quay in Cobh, moving only to allow a Cruise Liner to berth during the week.
On Tuesday, 7 October, the ship left Cork Harbour and sailed out of the shelter and along the south coast. The MV Gary Chouest’s open source tracking data said her destination was “open seas”. Her last recorded position was hundreds of nautical miles off the Irish west coast.
There are other large sea going support and commercial diving vessels in and out of Cork Harbour in recent months – generally berthing in Cork city.
Some of those are working on a on laying a cable in waters approximately 100 miles off Cork – the Gary Chouest did not go south to join them.
The ship had a number of silver coloured containers on deck also and one row of those structures was moved closer to the rear of the vessel and slightly lowered over the open fantail of the ship at the aft section of the ship.
Multiple sources had suggested that the ship was working on maintaining the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) which is a US military array on the sea bed which listens for passing submarines.
While the system has advanced in recent years and other methods are being used to monitor submarine traffic the devices, which are set at locations on the seabed, are still active and require maintenance.
The Department of Foreign Affairs explained in its statement that foreign naval vessels are granted permission to visit Irish ports on condition that they meet the necessary policy stipulations.
“In particular, these require that naval vessels visiting Irish ports do not carry nuclear weapons and do not engage in military exercises. These are the standard stipulations for any naval vessel to visit an Irish port. All naval vessels also require diplomatic clearance to enter Irish territorial waters.
“It is the long-standing policy of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade not to disclose details relating to the specifics of diplomatic clearance requests, as such information is provided by Embassies in the expectation of the maintenance of confidentiality.
“However, the Department can confirm that a US naval vessel was granted permission to berth in Cork harbour due to inclement weather, and that the correct diplomatic clearance procedure was followed in full,” the statement said.
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