INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Russian Submarine In North Sea? Scottish Fishermen Claim They Netted Warship

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 16:10 PST, Mar 21, 2015

A fishing crew has claimed that a rogue Russian submarine may be to blame for a strange encounter they experienced off the Scottish coast, which nearly resulted in the loss of their vessel.

Angus Macleod set out last Tuesday in the Aquarius, his 41-year-old wooden boat, to trawl for haddock and skate with a crew of five, according to the Telegraph. While in 360 feet of water, roughly 10 miles east of the Butt of Lewis, the fishermen encountered something they never could have expected: a submerged object that they believe was a Russian submarine, which snagged one of the boat’s two trailing nets, pulling it forward.

“The submarine was then ahead of Aquarius and heading on a northerly bearing towards international waters and bringing our nets along behind it. Only a submarine could have done this – it was a clear, still night and there were no other boats around.”

Macleod sent his engines into high gear in order to keep up with the submarine, spending a harrowing 15 minutes trying to keep his vessel afloat. The fisherman also revealed that had the submarine taken that moment to dive deeper, his 65-foot-long vessel would likely have been dragged to the bottom with it, according to the Daily Mail.

“We were eventually cut loose when the 150ft-long dog rope, which attaches the nets to the ship, wrapped itself around Aquarius’ propeller and got ripped apart,” he recalled.

The fishermen are certain that the object in their nets wasn’t a whale, as the crew has experienced that in the past. They assert that the mystery object was a submarine, possibly Russian in origin, and that the five men are extremely lucky to have survived.

“I have been told that there were no MoD submarines north of Neist Point on Skye that day – and no NATO submarines in the area too,” Macleod asserted. “It is possible a non-NATO submarine could be involved?”

Last November, NATO planes were called in to hunt a suspected Russian submarine off the British coastline, as the Inquisitr previously reported. The incident followed other sightings of a mysterious submarine, also believed to have been Russian, that occurred earlier in the year in Swedish waters.

Roughly three miles from port, the vessel developed trouble with its steering, and a boat was launched to tow it in. When the Aquarius docked, it was discovered that four out of the five bolts that connect the rudder to the boat’s steering motor had been sheared away.

Macleod notes that roughly £10,000 in damage and lost profit was done to his vessel. He and his crew are awaiting the results of an official inquiry, yet they maintain that they ran afoul of a Russian submarine.

[Image: Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images]

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