Later Life
In September 2007, King and his daughter Leonie, still lived at Oranmore Castle. His life's experiences continue to attract media attention, from film to music to art installation.
He was filmed for two documentaries about the Golden Globe Race; the 1960s BBC short Golden Globe – Lone Sailor Round the World Race and 2006's Deep Water. His war experiences still fascinate documentary film makers. King was interviewed for two planned productions, a 24 minute episode entitled "To Honour and Peace" for the proposed series entitled Bravery Beneath the Waves, and for The Stick & The Stars: The Life & Times of Commander Bill King.
Most recent attention arises from King's interaction with Akira Tsurukame and Katja Boonstra-Blom – the subject of print media articles, an exhibition, and video interviews. Tsurukame, son of the chief engineer who perished with I-166, in 2004 sought out King. King, Tsurukame, and Katja Boonstra, whose father was killed when I-166 sank the Dutch submarine K XVI, together planted a tree at Oranmore Castle to honour the fathers of the latter two.
The local paper, The Galway Advertiser, dubbed their threeway meeting at Oranmore Castle a "reconciliation". Subsequently Akira Tsurukame released video material of his interviews with Bill King on the internet. Two installations in July 2006 at the Project 06 art exhibition in Galway referenced King. Response to Japanese Peace and Reconciliation was arranged in Swan House, and featured art-works by his daughter Leonie King and grand-daughter Heather Finn. The Lost at Sea installation was a collaboration between Galway-based Cane 141, who set stories told by Bill King to electronic music, and visual artist Roisin Coyle. The latter installation has since been exhibited in Dublin, and in May 2007 at Grace Exhibition Space in New York City.
In 2009, Bill King's great nephew Luke Leslie produced the short film King of the Waves, which dramatised King's solo circumnavigation and encounter with the great white shark. It also included interviews with King himself. It was screened before King and his family in Oranmore Galway on his ninety-ninth birthday shortly before premiering at the 2009 Galway, Cork and Kerry film festivals.
King died in September 2012. At the time of his death, he was the oldest surviving World War II submarine commander.
Read more about this topic: Bill King (Royal Navy Officer)
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