Hopes are fading for seven missing Irish fishermen after two trawlers sank within hours of each other, bringing a double tragedy to the waters off Hook Head in County Wexford and Mine Head in County Waterford 20 miles further west.
Navy vessels and divers have been involved in the search, as have police divers, lifeboats, helicopters, fishing trawlers and coastguard shore crews.
"Conditions are very difficult with gale force winds. The seas are very rough and it is very windy," coastguard spokeswoman Veronica Scanlan told AFP.
"As time goes on hopes are fading of actually rescuing any of the missing men. It is becoming more likely that it will be bodies that will be recovered," she said.
British coastguards scrambled in the North Sea after a ship carrying 94 passengers lost power in a stretch of water where another vessel narrowly missed slamming into a gas rig on Thursday, reports AFP.
"We are very pleased that the vessel is now safely under tow - the weather on scene is still poor but I can report that all 94 people on board are safe and well," said David Robertson, coastguard manager at Aberdeen, northern Scotland.
Just one day before this incident, a 4,500-tonne cargo ship narrowly avoided a collision with a ConocoPhillips gas platform when it ran adrift further south in the North Sea.
Meanwhile, the search has been called off for a woman reported to have fallen from a Russian cargo vessel off the southwest coast of England.
And the mainland has not managed to escape the deadly weather conditions. One man was killed in a village in Somerset when a tree fell on the car he was travelling in. Around 80,000 homes were left without power in Wales after power cables were brought down by falling trees.
