Loss of the Fishing Vessel Gaul 1974 United Kingdom

The commercial fishing industry consistently experiences one of the highest occupational fatality rates in the country. In 2006, commercial fishermen had the most dangerous job in the United States, with an annual fatality rate that was 36 times greater than the rate of all US workers. The fishing vessel Gaul was a deep sea factory ship based at Hull, United Kingdom. She sank some time on the night of the 8-9 February 1974 in storm conditions in the Barents Sea, north of Norway. Thirty-six crew were lost in the worst peacetime disaster to befall the UK fishing fleet. The original Formal Investigation in 1974 concluded that the most likely reason for her loss was that she was overwhelmed by a succession of very large waves in heavy seas and capsized. A new investigation in 2004 concluded that open chutes, doors and hatches had compromised the ship’s watertight integrity and, combined with a following (and as already noted, heavy) sea led to flooding on the factory deck. An attempted emergency manoeuvre by the officer of the watch (a perfectly logical move to try to turn ‘into the sea’) catastrophically deprived Gaul of her stability as floodwater freely moved around and buoyancy was lost, thus causing her to capsize and sink very rapidly, stern first. For more information on the severe hazards faced by workers in commercial fishing and methods for improving safety, go to the US NIOSH Commercial Fishing Safety website at www.cdc.gov . This clip is from the British film, The …
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Fishing onboard the 7 Star Fishing Adventures, out in the deep waters around Pulau Mengalum, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Fair weather and clam seas made a good fishing conditions for this group of anglers from Singapore.