#Fishing - Was a fishing boat dragged backwards by a submarine in the Irish Sea?
That's what the crew of an Ardglass prawn trawler are saying after an incident yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 15 April).
As the Belfast Telegraph reports, skipper Paul Murphy says the 60-foot wooden-hulled trawler was some 18 miles off the coast, near the Calf of Man, when something snagged its nets.
“Without warning, were were stopped and pulled backwards very violently at around ten knots which is the top speed of the vessel. I really thought that was it," he says.
"It was fortunate that one of the steel ropes holding the net snapped or we would have been pulled under very quickly."
Murphy says the scary episode only lasted a few seconds, but still managed to cause thousands of pounds' worth of damage to his fishing gear – and alleges that the culprit was a submarine.
The Belfast Telegraph has more on the story HERE.
It wasn't the only drama in the Irish Sea yesterday, as a coastguard helicopter was scrambled to rescue three from a fishing boat that sank off Wicklow.