Bomb squad called to Hartlepool wartime mine trawled by fishing boat

CREDIT: RNLI
A Royal Navy bom disposal team was called to assist after a fishing boat trawled a wartime mine while working in the North Sea. Credit: RNLI

A bomb squad was called after a fishing boat trawled a wartime mine.

A Royal Navy bomb disposal team was called to assist with the operation after the 13 metre fishing boat with two people aboard trawled the mine, which measured one metre in length.

The boat was fishing about five miles off Hartlepool at the time.

Hartlepool RNLI volunteers were paged at 10:40pm on Monday 6 February.

The all-weather lifeboat launched at just after 11pm and arrived on scene at 11:25pm, where they transferred the bomb disposal team and their equipment to the fishing boat to inspect the ordnance.

The one metre bomb was trawled by a fishing boat working in the North Sea near Hartlepool. Credit: RNLI

Hartlepool RNLI deputy launch authority Steve Pounder said: "Unfortunately the bomb disposal team who had travelled from Scotland were unable to launch their own boat due to the low tide so we took them to sea to deal with the ordnance, which they secured and left on the seabed to be dealt with in the daylight and then allow both our boat with the Navy team back on board and the fishing boat to return to Hartlepool safely."

Hartlepool RNLI coxswain Robbie Maiden added: "There was some good teamwork from my crew transferring the bomb disposal team and equipment to and from the all-weather boat. Assisting the Royal Navy at sea helped bring the incident to a satisfactory end."

The lifeboat and bomb team returned to the boathouse at 1:10am.

A 13 metre fishing boat with two people abroad trawled the wartime device. Credit: RNLI

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