Danish fisherman catches a....submarine?

[U-T]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3702477.stm

A Danish fishing trawler has landed a bigger catch than its crew are used to... a submarine.

The trawler was in the Skagerrak waters between Norway and Denmark, close to the Danish port of Hirtshals, when it made its surprise catch.

The trawler caught the submarine in its nets, forcing the vessel to rise to the surface.

The German submarine was taking part in a Nato training exercise involving 70 vessels from 16 countries.

No-one was injured in the incident.

"The crew of the trawler was never in danger, they were more scared than anything else," a sea rescue duty officer told AFP news agency.

"A German vessel helped the captured submarine to disentangle itself and continue on its route," he added.

In a similar accident 10 years ago, three Danish crewmen were killed when their trawler was pulled to the bottom of the sea by a German submarine caught in its nets.

 

[Freak]

:lol: :lol:

 

[MemphisVol]

I'm always encouraged to hear about the great advances being made in military technology, given the enormous number of social-program, real human suffering sacrifices we supposedly have to make every day to keep military budgets high.

Yes, while we still haven't developed the technological capability to avoid Dutch fishing trawlers in the vast expanse of even the smallest sea (they're so much more deadly than specifically targetted threats like torpedos), but at least in the last 10 years NATO submarines have developed the capacity to avoid sinking when caught in fishing nets.

On a related note, does anyone know whether this latest event has finally opened the eyes of Western military planners to the vast un-tapped security potential of the Dutch fishing fleet? I mean, they've caught 2 subs in 10 years by accident, and the Soviets didn't catch any in 40 years when they were really, really trying. Is there a reason, given that it generally costs more to train an individual Western anti-submarine soldier than it does to buy an entire Dutch fishing trawler and crew, that we haven't explored the apparent potential of this combat-proven secret weapon?

 

[Freak]

Maybe you are on to something.