Bombs away off British coast
A dramatic lifeboat alert unfolded recently as a dredger uncovered two unexploded bombs.
The
Cornelia
was working around six miles off the UK coast near Huttoft, dredging up sand to use as part of the local sea defence refurbishment. Early in the afternoon, the crew realised they had dredged up the two bombs, initially thought to date from World War Two but later thought more likely to be from a submarine.
Mablethorpe’s RNLI volunteers were called out soon after with an eye to evacuating the 22 strong crew of the dredger.
The
y stayed ready for action, standing by at a distance of some 200m from the dredger until a bomb disposal team arrived later that day.
The
emergency left the two crews on alert for seven hours, finally standing down at 8:15 PM.
RNLI helmsman Tom Freeman said, ‘This was an unusual shout for us, the first of its kind I’ve been involved in during 29 years on the lifeboat crew. Initially, we didn’t know exactly what to expect and treated the incident with extreme caution.’
Mr Freeman added: ‘I’m very proud of the crew, though, because they kept calm and remembered all their RNLI training. Fortunately there was a good outcome with no need to evacuate the vessel.’
Eventually the bombs were determined to be safe enough to be transported ashore, where one of the bombs was exploded in a controlled detonation later that night, while the other, thought to be inactive, was examined by the Ministry of Defence the next day at the scene.
This was not an isolated incident. February saw a suspected WWII bomb being uncovered by a dredger close to Warrenpoint Harbour in Ireland. An exclusion zone was set up around the dredger and a barge moved the object to a quiet area of the harbour. Traffic was diverted and marine movement suspended until it was declared safe. February also saw the dredger Brabo picking up old shells off Felixstowe in two separate incidents, although these were declared inactive.
In 2006 the Caister lifeboat and coastguards were involved in similar circumstances as a bomb was picked up in the sea off the Norfolk coast by the dredger Arco Dyke. On that occasion the vessel sailed to Great Yarmouth, where the Royal Navy bomb disposal experts moved the bomb to the sea bed before detonation.
