The fishing vessel Gaul was a deep sea factory ship based at Hull, United Kingdom. She sank some time on the night of the 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. Thirty-six crew were lost in the worst peacetime disaster to befall the UK fishing fleet.
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The original Formal Investigation in 1974 concluded that the most likely reason for her loss was that she was overwhelmed by a succession of very large waves in heavy seas and capsized. The preliminary investigation had also found deficiencies in the maintenance of chutes, doors and hatches on Gaul's sister ship Kurd, but the relevance of this fact was downplayed at the formal inquiry.
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.
Relatives of the crew were thus reluctant to accept the investigation findings because Gaul was one of the most modern ships in the UK fishing fleet - she was only 18 months old. In 1975 a TV programme claimed she had been sunk while engaging in espionage and over the years other theories, including conspiracy theories, have been advanced:
In 1997 a TV crew, with help from Norwegian experts located the wreck exactly where Rairo had reported the snagging of her nets.
This prompted UK Deputy Prime Minister (and Hull MP) John Prescott to ask the Marine Accident Investigation Branch of the Department for Transport to carry out extensive surveys of the wreck, which it did in 1998 and 2002. From its findings MAIB said there was enough new evidence to warrant a new inquiry. The surveys revealed that some of Gaul's hatches and doors were open and, specifically, the outer non-return flaps and the inner covers to the duff and offal chutes were open. Additionally, the inner cover to the duff chute appeared to be secured open and the ship's steering gear (kort nozzle) was found to be full over to port. John Prescott agreed and a new investigation was launched (the Re-opened Formal Investigation).
On 17 December 2004 the RFI concluded that these open chutes, doors and hatches had compromised the ship's watertight integrity and, combined with a following (and as already noted, heavy) sea led to flooding on the factory deck. An attempted emergency manoeuvre by the officer of the watch (a perfectly logical move to try to turn 'into the sea') catastrophically deprived Gaul of her stability as floodwater freely moved around and buoyancy was lost, thus causing her to capsize and sink very rapidly, stern first.
The report of the RFI dismissed the notion that Gaul was involved in espionage or that she was in a collision. It found that she was not fishing at the time of her loss, which indicated that no snagging (of the nets) could have occurred.
In the immediate wake of the report, relatives of the crew said they were not satisfied[1] and claimed that the "truth was still to be told".
According to a half-hour program on the History Channel, the absence of human remains in the wreck furthered the suspicion that the crew had been taken off by the Russians. A further examination with more modern undersea equipment was made, and brought up six bodies which were brought back to Hull for burial, and finally brought closure to the mystery of what had happened.
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