Sub draged fishing boat

BlackPig

BlackPig

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A FISHING boat skipper has told of his terrifying brush with a submarine off the Outer Hebrides.

Angus Macleod said his net was continually dragged in front of his 62ft trawler.

He has sent reports to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Marine Accident Investigation Branch.

Angus, 46, said: “The only explanation I can think of is it’s a submarine.

“It missed the nets, which is just as well. I think something got hold of the dog rope – which attaches to the top and bottom of the net – and the trawl wire.

“All five of us aboard are lucky. I don’t want to think of what could have happened.”

In recent days, there have been fears that Russian nuclear submarines may be operating off the coast of Scotland. The MoD told the Coastguard they had no subs in the area where Angus’s vessel, the Aquarius, was operating on Tuesday.

The wooden boat was about 10 miles east of the Butt of Lewis and fishing in 360ft of water. The crew had two nets out. At about 7pm and again at about 11.30pm the boat suddenly slowed. The port net moved in front of the boat, while the other still lay astern.

full story
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/fishing-boat-skipper-claims-crew-5373939
 
This sort of thing has been going on ever since submarines were invented ( American Civil War ? ).

We have a few pro' submariners here so I'll say right now I'm only guessing, but as subs prefer to listen rather than transmit anything it's jolly hard to detect fishing nets; there have been ideas about attaching sonar pingers to nets, I imagine too expensive ?

Several accounts of fishing boats being dragged along by their nets, when I was a regular visitor to PortPatrick in the 1980's it was a hot topic - and source of a lot of ill feeling - among the local fishermen.

I have had a sub' hide underneath my Carter 30 in mid- Channel ( showed on the depthsounder ), while a German destroyer with a helo dropped smoke floats nearby and was obviously weeping in frustration - no doubt in wartime we'd have been removed from the eqaution...

There was a less humourous incident years ago when a Contessa 32 in the Irish Sea was struck by periscopes etc and sunk, I think fatalaties were involved.
 
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It was the sinking of the Antares, and the loss of her crew, which led to the "Sub Facts" broadcasts. These are supposed to warn of areas, mainly off the West of Scotland, in which submarines may be exercising. Often it seems as if every single area is mentioned, which considering the small number of submarines there are, seems rather ludicrous. Best always keep your echosounder pinging away.
 
I have asked submariner chums if it helps keeping the depthsounder on - after all the sounders don't use much power - or even a music system going flat out like a Halfords window licker, but no-one gives a clear answer.

On one occasion in the 1980's, we were motoring from Lymington to Guernsey in a flat calm, in the Carter 30 I had then.

There seemed to be a NATO exercise on, as there were warships all around, then a German destroyer came straight at us at high speed, then did a crash stop and launched a helicopter which dropped smoke floats - I now know this was probably the ' sprint & drift ' search thechnique.

My crew's father happened to be a boffin on submarine warfare, so said crew grabbed the VHF mic, " Warship Foxtrot 27 this is yacht sail number ---, what are your intentions ? "

I'd turned on the depthsounder at this point, as I say it was mid-Channel; the reading went ' 60 fathoms, 60, 60, 20,20, 20, 60 '

So I think it a fair bet some smart-arse Sean Connery wannabe had detected our diesel noise and was underneath us, thumbing his nose at the destroyer.
 
A few years ago I was sailing off the West coast of France, approaching Douarnanez, when I noticed a yellow buoy about 300 metres off to starboard. Then my brain registered that the yellow buoy was moving at about 15 knots on a directly reciprocal course to me. It took a while for my befuddled brain to figure out what was happening. Buoys don't move!! The only sensible explanation was that it was a submarine with a yellow box above it sticking out of the water. Then I noticed what seemed like a fishing vessel about half a mile astern of the moving buoy, obviously tracking the yellow buoy. The water is not deep in the Baie de Douarnanez, and the submarine would have been only just under the surface. I shudder to think what could have happened.
 
In 1985 I was on the bridge of HMS Broadsword as we rounded the north end of Skye at dawn. Glorious sunshine! :)
A couple of hours later a submarine surfaced beside us!
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OK - we were there for some torpedo trials at the BUTEC range and PWO(U) in the OPS Room obviously knew it was there, but it was bit surreal. "Need to know"...
 
The fishermen at Portpatrick - about 1986 - were outraged after a British submarine surfaced in the middle of the fishing fleet; one would have thought she'd have detected them on passive sonar ?

Then the same could be said for the Contessa ' Antares '.

I have met and been instructed by RN submariners and have huge respect for them ( and whatever you do, don't get into a drinking contest with them ! :) ) but maybe the only reason we have relatively few sub collisions is because we have so few submarines ?!
 
Seajet said:
The fishermen at Portpatrick - about 1986 - were outraged after a British submarine surfaced in the middle of the fishing fleet; one would have thought she'd have detected them on passive sonar ?

Then the same could be said for the Contessa ' Antares '.

I have met and been instructed by RN submariners and have huge respect for them ( and whatever you do, don't get into a drinking contest with them ! :) ) but maybe the only reason we have relatively few sub collisions is because we have so few submarines ?!
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Was there a Contessa called 'Antares' as well as the fishing vessel called 'Antares' sunk as a result of submarine activity? The fishing vessel was in the Firth of Clyde, between Arran and Bute, in 1990.
http://britishseafishing.co.uk/the-sinking-of-fv-antares/

You'd like to think improvements in safety, particularly the efforts made to broadcast "subfacts", have contributed to the relatively few sub collisions.
 
Some friends of mine were on their 28' sailing boat between the IOW and Guernsey, motoring in calm fog, when their prop' was fouled by a tarpaulin and they spent DAYS & NIGHTS drifting up & down the Channel !

This was decades ago when I suppose a call on VHF seemed drastic.

The lad onboard was an experienced diver, but they found it was too cold to get at the prop; in the meantime a submarine went past at periscope depth, I've seen the photo's.

I can't help thinking sub passive sonar is not all it's cracked up to be; maybe pro's like OGITD & CaptnSensible could let us know just how much peril we're in please ?!
 
I think the Irish Sea incident you are referring to Seajet may be the sudden sinking of a yacht in the North Channel east of the Maidens (off the coast of Larne N.I.). I think it was late eighties. They were sailing at night and apparently well clear of the Maidens when there was an underwater impact and they were holed below the water line. The yacht quickly foundered but I think all survived. The incident was reported in either PBO or YM at the time with a survivor's account - "saved by the buoyant flare canister" or something like that was the headline. The crew were bobbing about amongst flotsam when help suddenly arrived in the form of the Navy - hence immediate suspicion at the time that they had been clobbered by a sub. I can't remember the full details but this may have been the Dalriada which the Mod later admitted had been sunk by HMS Conqueror.
 
Motoring home among about twenty other FVs from the mackerel fleet in 1974 or so, saw a periscope alongside us: we chased after it with the intention of dropping a bucket over it, but my skipper bottled out.
 
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