After the Evelyn Marie tragedy just twenty one months earlier, when news of the Carraig Una disaster came in the search effort for the crew was huge and immediate. The Aranmore lifeboat was immediately launched. Two helicopters from the army base at Finner Camp were sent out and searched until dark over a wide area.
Some 30 trawlers from ports on the Donegal coast sped to the island. Local volunteers combed the coastline.

The Irish Air Corps, Army, Navy and Gardai joined forces in the biggest and most expensive combined deep-sea search operation of its kind ever launched in the country at the time. Full details of the search effort can be read in this article which is from the time of the tragedy: All Out Search for Lost Fishermen

Despite the huge search effort, only two bodies were recovered. The body of Skipper Ted Carbery was discovered by a diver on the first day of the search. That story can be found here. John Boyle’s was the second, and final, body to be recovered; almost 6 weeks after the tragedy.

Unfortunately for the families and friends of Doalty O’Donnell, Michael Coyle and Anthony McLaughlin, their bodies were never recovered.

The images below show the efforts of the divers, army, navy, air corps and local volunteers who searched for weeks to try to recover the bodies. These are taken from the video, Lost at Sea, which is on this website.