British Find Wreckage of Trawler Hit by Royal Navy Sub; Four Feared Dead

Britain’s Defense Ministry said Friday that it had found the wreckage of a fishing boat that was dragged underwater by a Royal Navy nuclear submarine, and that its four crew members were feared dead.

Senior Defense Ministry official Archie Hamilton confirmed the trawler Antares had been pulled down when its nets were snagged by the submarine Trenchant.

“The search for the crew continues but, sadly, it now seems extremely unlikely that they will be found alive,” Hamilton said.

He told Parliament a full inquiry will be made but he rejected calls to suspend submarine movements in the area, saying this “would inhibit the activities of the Royal Navy to a very extensive degree.”

Thursday’s incident in the Firth of Clyde off western Scotland reopened a controversy over a series of sinkings and accidents to fishing boats for which the Defense Ministry has been blamed.

A naval vessel’s underwater video equipment spotted the wreckage of the 52-foot Antares early Friday 390 feet below the surface, the coast guard said.

” . . . People are getting angrier and angrier,” said the Rev. Alastair Dunlop, a minister in Carradale, the trawler’s home port. “Everybody finds it hard to believe that a modern submarine does not know there’s a fishing boat above it.”