FV Gaul 1974
Marker: recorded wreck position (Modern).
Key facts
| Name | FV Gaul | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1974 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Modern | derived from year |
| Ship type | ship | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | Storm or weather | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | United Kingdom | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Sea / ocean | Norwegian Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | Norway | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 108 km from land |
| Position | 72.0667, 25.0833 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
The fishing vessel Gaul was a deep sea factory ship based at Hull, United Kingdom. She was launched in December 1971 by Brooke Marine of Lowestoft, entering service during 1972 with the Ranger Fishing company, where she was registered at North Shields as Ranger Castor, SN18. She was renamed when Ranger Fishing was bought by British United Trawlers and re-registered at Hull as Gaul, H243.
She sank some time on the night of 8–9 February 1974 in storm conditions in the Barents Sea, north of Norway. No distress signal was received and her loss was not realised until 10 February after she twice failed to report in. An extensive search operation was launched but no trace of the ship was found, apart from a lifebuoy recovered three months later. All thirty-six crew were lost. The president of the British Trawler Federation described the loss of the Gaul as "the worst ever single-trawler tragedy". The wreck was finally located in 1997.
Diving & visiting
In 1975 the Norwegian trawler Rairo reported snagging her nets on an undersea obstruction in the area where the Gaul was lost. In 1977, however, the UK government decided against launching a search based on this (and other similar) information, despite being confident that this was indeed Gaul. It was argued that such an investigation would add little new information in aid of safety at sea to justify the cost.
In 1997 a TV crew, with help from Norwegian experts located the wreck exactly where Rairo had reported the snagging of her nets. She was discovered to be located some 70 nautical miles (130 km; 81 mi) off the northern coast of Norway and lying in 919 feet (280 m) of water.
In February 2014, a memorial service was held on St. Andrew's Quay, Hull, to mark the 40th anniversary of the loss of the Gaul.
Location
- Recorded position: 72.0667, 25.0833 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Norwegian Sea
- Nearest coast: Norway
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article FV Gaul (revision 1380719453), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “The wreck is found”, “Memorial service”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- U-472 1944 · 124 km
- Scharnhorst 1943 · 125 km
- U-655 1942 · 171 km
- HMS Trinidad 180 km
- U-314 1944 · 193 km
- Murmansk 194 km
Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off Norway · Norwegian Sea · Modern