The recovered trawler Bugaled Breizh was towed into the port of Brest yesterday morning after being taken across the Channel from Falmouth on a giant barge.



Families of the trawler's five lost crewmen, who launched a successful campaign for the £2.5 million salvage operation and who have vowed to trace the rogue vessel thought to have hit and sunk the trawler, were present as the Bugaled Breizh arrived at Brest.

Two fishermen's bodies were recovered after the incident 30 miles off the Lizard six months ago, and a third was discovered inside the wreck on Saturday. Two men remain missing.

The nature of the damage to the 24-metre boat, in which there are two identical huge dents in either side, below the water line, appeared to mystify French experts and Gendarmes who have launched an investigation into manslaughter and failing to assist persons in danger.

The second dent was not visible when video pictures were recorded by a submarine in January as the vessel was lying on her side.

The dents, identical in shape and about nine metres in length, appear to rule out the possibility that the trawler was the victim of a high seas hit-and-run by a large container vessel off The Lizard last January, according to early comments by experts.

If the trawler had been hit by a surface vessel there would have been huge damage to only one of its sides and the damage would have been almost certainly above the waterline, one expert asserted yesterday.

The fact that the huge dents are below the waterline appeared to deepen suspicion last night amongst grieving families and fishermen in Brittany that the vessel was struck from below, probably by a submarine.

But in an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien, French submarine expert Francis-Pierre Drouet said: "A submarine which would have hit the trawler and caused such damage would itself have suffered serious problems."

French Navy spokesmen have already denied that the Dutch submarine Dolfjin, which was taking part in an international NATO exercise on the day the Bugaled Breizh was sunk and was seen in the area after the Bugaled Breizh radioed for help, was involved in the accident.

And rumours in January at Plymouth that a submarine sailed into port with damage to her bows a few hours after the five fishermen died were quickly scotched by the Royal Navy at the time. French reports yesterday referred to the "astonishment" of marine accident experts that the Bugaled Breizh suffered almost identical damage to her port and starboard bows.

The hypothesis that the trawler was struck simultaneously by two vessels was dismissed as "fantasy" .

In the Le Parisien interview maritime consultant at the French Appeal Court Philippe Clouet suggested that the second dent could have been caused by the vessel striking the sea bed.

But Loic Le Moel, a Poitiers-based consultant, dismissed that theory stating that "a trawler of this kind does not sink like a stone".

One theory which consultants appointed by the two investigating judges based in Quimper are said to be considering is that the dents were caused by pressure during the six months spent on the sea bed.

Experts appointed by the investigating judges based in Quimper are also understood to be looking at the possibility that the sinking was caused by a mechanical leak perhaps due to an accident or a collision.

As the Bugaled Breizh was towed into the port of Brest yesterday journalists' boats were prevented from approaching.

But newspaper and TV long lens cameras relayed pictures clearly showing that the mystery identical dents on the bows of the trawler.

The case of the Bugaled Breizh has attracted national coverage and has been the subject of numerous investigative articles in France.

The trawler is now considered a vital piece of evidence in the six-month old investigation and will be subject to strict French laws on "judicial secrets" which prevent judges and witnesses evidence being published.

The Bugaled Breizh will now be placed in dry dock at the military port of Brest, where first detailed examinations are likely to begin tomorrow.

Very interesting.
But it seems unlikely that a submarine would have caused two identical dents on the ship for the exact same reason as a surface vessel couldn't likely do so...you can only hit one side at once.
The possibility that the dents were caused by pressure variances while on the ocean floor make more sense to me, but that still leaves the mystery of what sank the ship in the first place.

I love a good mystery.

Very interesting indeed!

det:

Captain Nemo perhaps det: det:

A giant squid has been ruled out ? det:

Cool!! I can tell by the picture that it wasn't a NUMA project.

Yep, it was my sub Nautilus under my command. So Sorry p:

I figured as much! ... Where in hell did you get your license? <_<