Irish and French authorities are to carry out a joint investigation into the sinking of the sail training vessel Asgard II in the Bay of Biscay in the early hours of Thursday morning last week.

Marine experts said Ireland's own 9/11 tragedy - the sinking was on September 11 - was avoided because of the superb skills of the five full-time crew of the Asgard and the fitness of the 20 trainees who were aged from 16 to late sixties.

The ship started taking water about 3 a.m. when most of those aboard were in their bunks. They later told how the alarm was raised and an immediate abandon ship order was issued by the skipper, Colm Newport, when he realized the bilge pumps were not clearing the water out fast enough.

Within 15 minutes of all 25 taking to three life rafts and casting adrift in a heaving sea, French rescue lifeboats reached them and carried them to land and safety in France 12 miles away.

Retired Customs executive Frank Bourke, 61, who was at the helm when the alarm was raised, told how at no time during the emergency did anybody fear there would be loss of life. "It all happened extremely fast. There was no panic. At no stage did we feel that anybody was going to die," he said.

"Everybody was concerned, obviously, but everybody helped everybody else. We had previously gone through a drill whereby we considered if such a situation arose what we might do and everything worked well. There was no panic. Everybody was calm."

Why the vessel sank is still a mystery. Even as the crew and trainees were abandoning ship they thought it would be saved and were surprised when they reached land to hear it had been lost.

The vessel was named after the original Asgard built in 1905 and given by Dr. and Mrs. Hamilton Osgood of Boston to their daughter Mary on her marriage to Erskine Childers, father of the late President Childers.

In July, 1914 the original Asgard, with Erskine and Mary Childers and four others on board, landed a cargo of guns at Howth for the Irish Volunteers.

The ship was later sold and passed through several hands before being purchased by the Irish government in 1961 because of her historical associations. It became a sail training vessel for the young people of Ireland before being transferred to Kilmainham Jail Historical Museum in 1979.

Asgard 11 was commissioned in 1981 and is managed for the State by a special committee with the minister for defense as chairman.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Defense said this week it was still too early to say whether any attempt would be made to salvage Asgard 11 - which is lying in 295 feet of water - or build a replacement.