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Irish Fishermen Nearly Dragged To The Depths By What They Believe Was A Russian Submarine
On Wednesday afternoon, while trawling at a point known as the Calf Man near the Isle of Man in the Irish sea, the fishing vessel Karen was suddenly dragged violently backward through the water, nearly knocking her crew off their feet. The four men on board believe their nets may have caught a submarine passing below them.
“Without warning, we were stopped and pulled backwards very violently at around 10 knots which is the top speed of the vessel. I really thought that was it. It was fortunate that one of the steel ropes holding the net snapped or we would have been pulled under very quickly,” skipper Paul Murphy recalled.
The crew was unharmed, but shaken. “I actually had to sit down for ten minutes afterwards,” Murphy said while being interviewed on The Anton Savage Show. “My hands were shaking so much I couldn’t lift the radio to call the coastguard.”
The entire incident lasted only about five seconds, but it left the Karen with upwards of £10,000 in damages and her crew with lots of questions.
Dick James, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Fish Producers’ Organisation, said the cause of the disruption “was a submarine, it had to be, it could not have been anything else.”
But whose submarine was it?
A NATO exercise involving 55 warships, 13,000 sailors, and 70 aircraft is currently taking place north of the Irish Sea close to the Scottish coast. However, Royal Navy protocol says that, in an incident like the one experienced by the crew of the Karen, a submarine should immediately surface to identify itself and check on the health and welfare of those involved.
No submarine ever surfaced, leading many to believe the culprit was not involved in the military exercises–and could possibly be from Russia.
“There has been Russian activity,” James commented. “There have been allied exercises going on, the Russians have been taking an interest in it.” Russian submarines have been suspected of operating close to the UK and Irish shorelines.
“My concern is that protocols aren’t being followed,” he continued, “because the Cold War is hotting up, and it might have been a Russian submarine.”
The Ministry of Defense has refused to comment on whether there was any submarine activity in the area — about 18 miles from Ardglass in County Down — but Sky News’ defense correspondent, Alistair Bunkall, said he has been “reliably told that no British or Russian submarines were in those waters at the time.”
“Submarines give off a signature that can be tracked by magnetic anomaly detectors, essentially a network of sonar buoys, aircraft or undersea cables that pick up the boats movements,” Bunkall said. “Submarines also give off wake turbulence which is another way of tracking them. And never underestimate US intelligence capabilities – they are able to detect when a Russian sub leaves its base and let allies know so it can be tracked.”
James also conceded that “Our defence forces are not up to much if a rogue submarine of unidentified nationality is tearing around the Irish Sea.”
The incident remains shrouded in mystery, but fishermen in the port of Ardglass want answers. Sinn Féin Northern Ireland Assembly member Chris Hazzard said the community is angry:
The fact that this submarine didn’t even surface to make sure the fishermen were safe has caused considerable resentment in the area. It is totally unacceptable that a submarine would show such contempt for maritime workers.
The skipper and his crew on the Karen, and indeed all of the local fleet, deserve to know the truth about what happened. Whether this is a British vessel attached to the hugely controversial Trident system or a Nato submarine in training, our local fishermen deserve justice.
h/t: Business Insider
This post originally appeared on Western Journalism – Equipping You With The Truth
Source: http://www.westernjournalism.com/irish-fishermen-nearly-dragged-to-the-depths-by-what-they-believe-was-a-russian-submarine/
