The submarine theory is 'nonsense', says Mr Kirtsaether

Torbjorn Kirtsaether says he saw the ship's lights go out from his cabin moments before she disappeared in the Barents Sea on 8 February, 1974.

The 80-year-old came forward after hearing a former Royal Navy chief petty officer say the trawler may have been dragged down by a Polaris submarine.

Mr Kirtsaether dismissed these claims as "nonsense".

Lights vanished

He said he and two of his crewmates watched the Gaul sailing behind them on the day she went missing.

Radio contact was made with the trawler but suddenly her lights disappeared and the ship was lost, he said.

The former sailor said that his ship, the Anaris, searched in vain for the Gaul, but he could not be sure his sightings were reported.

Earlier this month, the former Royal Navy chief petty officer spoke to relatives of the 36 men who perished on the Gaul and government officials at a meeting in Leeds.

He claims that in 1983, when on a course at the Royal Navy Submarine School in Hampshire, he heard a conversation between a warrant officer and another serviceman in the officers' mess.

Polaris claim

He told BBC Look North: "I heard the warrant officer say to the army guy that there was something bothering him that he wanted to get off his chest.

"He said to the guy that back in 1973, when on board the Polaris, they had come into contact with a trawler which was sunk.

"He specifically named the trawler as being the Gaul."