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Irish trawler dragged by sub

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Sinn Féin Northern Ireland Assembly member Chris Hazzard said the community was 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.

 

But would the sub even know it had caught a trawler?

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It is very unlikely that they would not be well aware.

 

That depends...

 

The skipper said the boat had been snagged and dragged backwards at speed.

 

If the submarine was moving as fast as that quote suggests, then it's likely the passive sonar would be rendered useless by the sound of water rushing over the hull.

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That depends...

 

If the submarine was moving as fast as that quote suggests, then it's likely the passive sonar would be rendered useless by the sound of water rushing over the hull.

 

When you're happily fishing and your boat suddenly changes direction any speed feels like a fast speed. The speed is not estimated in the article. Fortunately the Irish Sea is not that deep only a few hundred feet in most places. It looks like the sub was operating in the deeper channel on the west side which is still only about 400ft in that area. Hence he downward vector maybe a little less. If this was a Russian sub interested in NATO exercises it would have been running at tactical speed, (say) about 25 knots to avoid shallow water detection and it passive sonar array should be optimized to that speed. The array on the tower is usually a 360 array. If they detected a constant bearing/range surface sound, it more likely than not they'd bother to do anything about it. Unlikely to pop up and wave to satellite, I think. Lucky lads! I'm glad.

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When you're happily fishing and your boat suddenly changes direction any speed feels like a fast speed. The speed is not estimated in the article.

 

Of course. That's why I started the sentence with 'if'... ;)

 

 

They may not have been aware of the boat before they collided with it - but they will have been aware of the collision with the fishing gear and the subsequent force on their vessel from the drag.

 

Good point, Broithe.

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US-Sub ?????

 

Likelihood would be UK - US - Russian - French - in that descending order, I would think. But, nobody will admit it was theirs, unless they are caught red handed. Standard practice now is to say nothing. In the past, people have denied it was theirs, then identifying parts have been found in the retrieved fishing gear.

 

Doesn't have to be from a nuclear state, of course, plenty of diesel-electrics out there, too.

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Interesting that some news sites jumped to the conclusion that the unseen sub belonged to the naughty Russians.

 

That's all part of the 'game'. Most of the identified collisions locally have been with UK subs, I'm not aware of a Russian ever being shown to be involved in one of these trawler drags, but a lot remain unidentified, of course.

 

UK subs often collide with Scotland, such as the unfortunately named HMS Astute - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Astute_%28S119%29#Aground_on_Skye - and even with a French submarine - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7892294.stm .

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Ah, Marco Ramius... the Rushin shubmarine captain wish the Shcottish achshent.

 

My party-piece is my Sean Connery impression.

 

You are a *****...

 

. ...for shore eyesh.

 

Crikey - I've been auto-censored - you'll have to work it out for yourselves.

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The side/up force seems likely to be fairly obvious immediately.

 

 

On another site, probably as a result of this discussion, I have just received a pop-up banner advert...

 

"If you can fix this - (picture of bicycle) - then you can fix this - (picture of submarine)" - clicking this banner leads to this - https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/engineers .

 

I do hope that they have a rather more rigorous supplementary selection procedure.

 

It does bring to mind a picture of all the lads pedalling like mad to get the sub going....

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Subs from EU nations are well aware of the safety protocols and procedures when operating in these waters and the risks associated with traffic conflict. There are extensive sops and checklists prior to surfacing and during ops near fishing targets. Just like aviation accidents things sometimes go wrong. I'd hazard a wild guess that the alleged sub was not from an EU country.

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The side/up force seems likely to be fairly obvious immediately.

 

 

On another site, probably as a result of this discussion, I have just received a pop-up banner advert...

 

"If you can fix this - (picture of bicycle) - then you can fix this - (picture of submarine)" - clicking this banner leads to this - https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/engineers .

 

I do hope that they have a rather more rigorous supplementary selection procedure.

 

It does bring to mind a picture of all the lads pedalling like mad to get the sub going....

 

Or the sub in dry dock, jacked up to change a flat……….. (caterpillar drive, of course)

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The side/up force seems likely to be fairly obvious immediately.

 

 

On another site, probably as a result of this discussion, I have just received a pop-up banner advert...

 

"If you can fix this - (picture of bicycle) - then you can fix this - (picture of submarine)" - clicking this banner leads to this - https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/engineers .

 

I do hope that they have a rather more rigorous supplementary selection procedure.

 

It does bring to mind a picture of all the lads pedalling like mad to get the sub going....

 

The RN are operating an updated version of this?

 

fig1.gif

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  • 4 months later...

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