This blog was started in 2006 as a critical response to the outcomes of
the 2004 Fishing Vessel Gaul’s Re-opened Formal Investigation (RFI) and of the
public inquiries held into two other major maritime tragedies:
FV Trident - lost
in 1974 with 7 crew on board – first inquiry held in 1975 – re-opened inquiry
held in 2010 and
MV Derbyshire – lost in
1980 with all 44 crew – first inquiry held in 1989 – second inquiry held in 2000
Since 2006, we have tried to shine a light on the corrupt means by which
the British State distorted the facts, withheld the truth from the public and
has dealt with our subsequent disclosures.
The Hull trawler Gaul sank in 1974
with the loss of all 36 crew. The
initial inquiry into its loss was held in 1974 and concluded that the ship had
been overwhelmed by a succession of high waves in heavy seas and capsized. The
wreck was located in 1997, surveyed in 1998 and 2002; and, in 2004, a formal
investigation was re-opened
under the auspices of the then deputy prime minister John Prescott and conducted on
behalf of the then Attorney General Lord Goldsmith.
The panel tasked with conducting
the 2004 formal investigation were prepared to consider a multitude of possible
causes for the loss of the vessel, including the most spectacular: “…
seizure, scuttling, fire, collision, explosion, missile attack, torpedo attack,
striking a mine, icing, cargo shift, structural failure, grounding, snagging a
seabed cable or a submarine…”
…but not the obvious design faults
and errors in the construction and
arrangement of the Gaul’s waste disposal chutes (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)(which had
been known to the government since before the Marine Accident Investigation
Branch’s 2002 underwater survey) and the stability shortfalls of the vessel (9,
10, 11, 12, 13) (recognized since 1974) the combined effects of which
had rendered the vessel unsafe and led to her loss (14).
Although all these matters were
known to the government beforehand, the 2004 Re-opened Formal Investigation
took active steps to avoid attributing the loss of the Gaul to any of these
technical deficiencies. Hence, the public was denied the truth and the families
of the lost crew of the Gaul were denied justice and the possibility to claim
their right to lawful compensation
The Gaul RFI was not, however, the
only flawed inquiry into a maritime tragedy: the inquiries into the loss of MV
Derbyshire - the 91,655 gross tons bulk-carrier built in 1976 and lost in 1980, and, the most blatantly unsound inquiry of all, the
re-opened formal investigation into the loss of FV Trident - a Peterhead-registered trawler that sank in 1974 - showed the same disregard for the facts and arrived at conclusions that were
solely intended to block the possibility of subsequent litigation for the
victims’ families.
One of us was employed as naval architect by the Maritime and
Coastguard Agency at that time and was involved in the Gaul’s 2004 RFI and
prior goings-on, and also carried out follow-up work for the Derbyshire
RFI. We therefore had access to relevant and undisclosed government documents
and carried out subsequent research.
Since blowing the whistle in 2006, we have published a
significant amount of factual evidence and technical detail with a view to
persuading the government and its relevant bodies to re-open the investigation
and reveal the truth about the loss of the Gaul. The authorities, however,
rather than putting things right, decided to continue withholding the truth and
shoot the messenger [15, 16]. As time
has passed, the crimes committed in hounding us and maintaining these cover-ups
have accumulated and grown much worse than the original fraud.
Until 2010, the Labour governments under PM Blair and Brown,
in solidarity with their own corrupt ministers and officials, had a direct,
existential interest in hiding the truth about their rigged inquiries.
Yet, even after the 2010 general election, and with a
Conservative Party in power, the cover-up has continued to this day – the
current government exercising undue pressure and using us as bargaining chips
in their inter-party politics and to fend accusations against their own members
and acolytes (17, 18).
Legal cases imitated by us since 2010, which should have
exposed the past wrongdoing, have been crudely sabotaged by the State, and as
for the press that should have been alert to such abuses, everybody seems to
have been silenced.
After a long break, we shall now catch up with you and start providing
further details about all these matters.
