Sunken trawler inquiry nears end

The Gaul sank with the loss of all 36 men on board

The inquiry into the loss of the Hull trawler Gaul is nearing its end, with final submissions being heard from the various interested parties.

The vessel went down in the Barents Sea in 1974 with the loss of all 36 crew.

The first inquiry into the sinking concluded that the ship was overwhelmed by mountainous seas.

But speculation about her fate has continued in the 30 years since, with reports that the trawler may have been involved in spying.

Wreck discovery

After completion of the final submissions, the Wreck Commissioner must decide what caused the sinking.

The inquiry in Hull has heard how there have been theories that the ship was seized by the Soviet Union and the crew imprisoned, or that the vessel was torpedoed or sunk accidentally by a Russian submarine.

The hearing was ordered by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in 1999, after the wreck of the Gaul was found on the seabed and surveyed.

A further survey, in 2002, discovered the remains of four of the men who were lost.

Lost missiles

The hearing began last month with the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith stating there was no evidence the vessel was involved in spying on Russia.

He admitted the MoD ran a scheme in the 1960s in which a naval commander acted as a liaison with trawler skippers in Hull.

But he said this scheme was over by the early 1970s, although two trawlers were used in covert and unsuccessful operations to recover lost missiles in the Barents Sea in 1972 and 1973.

Most of the men who died were from Hull, but six were from North Shields, Tyne and Wear, and one was from Nelson, Lancashire.