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Ship widow's grim wait

From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Monday 10th Aug 1998.

THE widow of an East Lancashire sailor and the families of 35 other men who died in the mystery sinking of a Hull trawler 24 years ago were set to learn today whether their bodies are on board the wreck.

John Doone was the radio operator on board the Gaul which went missing at the height of the Cold War. His widow, Sheila, of Sackville Street, Brierfield, is waiting to hear news of a government survey of the wreck which was found in nearly 300 metres of water off the Norwegian coast.

One of the relatives, Aubrey Bowles, whose 22-year-old brother Ronald was among the tragic crew, joined marine experts on board the survey vessel, the Mansel 18.

It will send a remote-control submarine down to the wreck in a bid to solve the riddle of why the trawler was lost in February 1974 without sending a distress signal.

A sonar survey by the search boat earlier today found the trawler intact, lying on its side 70 miles from the Norwegian port of Tromso.

The loss of the 214-foot Gaul led to claims that she was sunk while spying on Soviet naval convoys for British intelligence.

Families who lost fathers, brothers and sons on board the vessel have fought a long battle for a new inquiry into the sinking.

The theory that the vessel, one of the best-equipped and most modern in the British fishing fleet, was sunk while on a Cold War spying operation was given added credence last week when fishermen interviewed for a TV documentary said Gaul skipper Peter Nellist had taken part in spying operations.

An initial investigation concluded it had simply gone down in bad weather.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.

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