Seven men lost, 37 years searching for the truth - but not one person will be blamed

THE families bereaved in the Trident disaster in 1974 last night claimed they had been "badly let down" after a fresh inquiry into the tragedy ruled no-one was to blame for the deaths of the seven man crew.

Angry relatives said their 37-year search to discover the truth behind the loss of the vessel and their loved ones had still to achieve closure.

And they also criticised the failure of the government to provide them with advance copies of the inquiry's findings after the report of Sheriff Principal Sir Stephen Young QC was published on the internet before copies arrived at their homes by courier.

The families have maintained for more than three decades that it was the vessel's instability alone which caused the Trident to sink in stormy seas off Caithness on 3 October, 1974, and that there was a design fault in the vessel which caused it to capsize.

The Sheriff Principal said the possibility of the Trident sinking after taking on board a succession of seas should be eliminated. He stated that the "most likely probable cause" of the loss of the Trident was a sudden and catastrophic capsize followed by sinking.

Sir Stephen also ruled that the loss of the Trident had not been caused by the wrongful acts or faults of anyone - rejecting blame levelled against both David Tait, the majority owner of the Trident, and Andrew Cumming, the vessel's designer. He stated: "Trident had specific seakeeping characteristics that resulted in a measurable and significant probability of capsize in the weather conditions at the time. This is the main causative factor in her loss."

But he added: "What happened to the Trident on the day of her loss was not reasonably foreseeable to anyone in light of the knowledge and understanding of the design and construction of seagoing vessels available at the time - and even now this is not fully understood.

"A lack of seaworthiness does not necessarily imply fault and I do not consider that any lack of seaworthiness of the Trident - if present - has been shown to be attributable in whole or even in part to anyone's fault."

It was possible, he added, that a large trawl net, lashed in front of the wheelhouse, broke loose before the sinking and blocked some of the "freeing ports" designed to allow water to escape from the deck.

He said: "Plainly it must remain a matter for speculation whether these events did occur. But I do consider that a loss of stability attributable to a combination of water being trapped on deck and the movement of the large net is one possibility."

Jeannie Ritchie, who lost both her husband and father in the disaster, said yesterday: "We are still looking for closure. We have been badly let down."We haven't got a concrete conclusion from the Sheriff Principal. It seems to be a set of eliminations rather than a conclusive judgment.

"We are still no nearer the truth. We have waited years for this and are no further forward."

She also condemned the failure of the government to provide the families with advance copies of the report.

Mrs Ritchie said: "It was already on the TV news before we saw the report and the widows are really, really upset.

"We had no time to digest the report before it was made public. We didn't even have it in our hands."

The men who died were: Alex Ritchie, 35, who was the boat's co-owner; acting skipper Robert Cordiner, 36; and crewmen George Nicol, 58, Tom Thain, 32, James Tait, 32, Alex Summers, 38, and Alex Mair, 30.