Fishing crew trawls up WWII mine from seabed
The Sea Venture was fishing five nautical miles south-east of Courtmacsherry when its crew trawled up a mine from the sea bed. The skipper immediately radioed Valentia Coastguard Station to inform them of the incident and the Coastguard notified the Irish Naval Service.
Navy spokesman Lieutenant Commander Terry Ward said that the LÉ Eithne was dispatched to the scene and pulled alongside the trawler.
The LÉ Eithne’s ordnance officer, Clodagh McConnell, examined the mine. It was eroded, but its keg was still intact rendering it potentially lethal.
“It was a German GU anti-submarine mine which was in production from 1941 to 1945. These mines, which are 1.2m in height, would have contained around 360lb of explosives, which would have been plenty to destroy a large ship,” Lt Cmdr Ward said.
During World War II both the Germans and Allies laid scores of anti-submarine mines off the south coast of Ireland.
The Sea Venture travelled in towards Broadstrand Bay. The naval service then instructed the trawler’s crew to release the mine into a sandy area of the sea about half a mile offshore.
Navy divers marked the area with a buoy and then prepared a charge on the surface. This was then attached to the mine and it was detonated by remote control shortly after 2pm.
They dived after that to confirm that the mine had been destroyed.
“He (the skipper) did everything right. The first thing the crew of a trawler should do is contact the Coastguard who will contact us. If the mine is brought onboard the vessel it should be kept covered and wet. If it is entangled in the nets the safest thing to do is leave it in the water and wait for the Navy to arrive,” he said.
Lt Cmdr Ward added that on average one anti-submarine mine is picked up in trawler nets every year off the south coast. The last one was found off the Waterford coast in March 2006.
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