Navy all at sea as fisherman nets submarine

TO lose a bright yellow submarine could be classed as unfortunate. But if millions of pounds of military gadgetry fails to find it when a lobster fisherman can, it might be seen as careless.

When John Baker found the 750,000 remote-controlled submarine, missing from HMS Penzance, the Royal Navy denied it was theirs until he politely pointed out the letters MoD were printed on the side.

When the fisherman first spotted the 850kg vessel bobbing on the surface two miles south-west of the Mull of Oa on Islay, he thought it was a discarded oil drum.

However, on closer inspection, Baker, from Port Ellen on Islay, realised it was actually a remotely operated mini Royal Navy submarine, primarily used to hunt for mines in hostile waters. It was nine feet long, almost a ton in weight and crammed with hi-tech equipment used to probe the ocean floor - often where it is considered to be too risky to send a human being.

Baker hooked the mini-sub to his fishing boat, the Harvester, and towed it back to port, landing it with the help of expensive winching gear.

He then thought he would do the responsible thing by trying to return the property to its rightful owner.

But when he contacted the Ministry of Defence to tell them that he had found their submarine the MoD initially denied that it could be theirs.

When he pointed out the fact that it had "MoD" stamped on it, they finally admitted that one of their subs had been missing for some time.

Speaking from Port Ellen, Baker said: "We were just looking for our creels when we saw it."

But the incident has provoked a more forthright reaction from other local fishermen, who believe that compensation should be paid out for rescuing such an expensive piece of military equipment.

Fisherman Harold Hastie said: "We have the submarine in a secure location on Islay but we think it is only appropriate, after spending money to recover it and lift it out of the water, that we receive some sort of financial recognition."

So far the navy has been unwilling to budge and has said that they were disappointed that the submarine has not yet been handed over.

A Royal Navy spokesman said: "Within an hour of the boat being lost, we notified HMS Clyde, including the coastguard, about the possible risks of losing the boat. However, it appears that the message did not reach Faslane until a week later. We're conducting a investigation into what went wrong. But we are not going to hand out taxpayers' money unless it is due. We are not going to be held to ransom."

In addition, the navy and fishermen are at loggerheads over whether fishing crews were warned that the submarine was lost and might present a danger to shipping because of the risk of collision.

While the MoD insists that coastguards were warned, some skippers - including one who works for the coastguard - insist that they received no such warning.

Remote-controlled submersibles are controlled from a ship using a fibre-optic cable which not only transmits signals to manoeuvre the device but also sends camera pictures back to the surface.

If the cable is severed then the submersibles are designed to sink to the seabed before the ballast in their tanks is jettisoned so that they rise to the surface. They can then be recovered after on-board signals show their position.