 An underwater camera reveals the wheelhouse of the sunken Gaul |
A six-week public inquiry into the sinking of the Hull trawler Gaul 30 years ago has ended. The vessel sank in the Barents Sea on 8 February, 1974, without sending a mayday call. None of its 36 crewmen survived.
On Friday, lawyers for the skipper and the Department of Transport gave their final submissions to the judge.
The Wreck Commissioner, Mr Justice Steel, thanked the crew's families before adjourning to write his report.
The first inquiry into the sinking concluded that the ship was overwhelmed by mountainous seas.
But speculation about her fate has persisted over the years, with reports that the trawler may have been involved in spying.
The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith told the inquiry there was no evidence that the ship was involved in any form of espionage.
The latest hearing was ordered by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in 1999, after the wreck of the Gaul was found on the seabed in 1997 and surveyed.
A further survey, in 2002, discovered the remains of four of the crew who were lost.
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