Irish gun boat sinks Spanish trawler

Press, 22 October 1984, Page 6

Irish gun boat sinks Spanish trawler

NZPA-Reuter Dublin Ireland and Spain appear to be trying to prevent a potential dispute developing over the sinking of a Spanish trawler fired on by the Irish Navy. The Irish Government said that the trawler Sonia was fired on when she repeatedly tried to ram an Irish fishery protection vessel after being discovered fishing only 10 nautical miles off the Irish coast. An Irish Defence Department spokesman said on television that the Sonia had tried to ram the patrol boat Aisling 10 times, at one point missing her by only three metres. Spokesmen for the 16 crew members rescued from the stricken vessel and taken to England and Ireland denied that they had deliberately tried to ram the patrol boat. A crewman, Sabino Zubichray, taken with 12 others to a Royal Air Force base

in Cornwall, said, “It would be impossible. We had only a small fishing boat and would not try anything like that.” He said that the Aisling had fired directly at the trawler without warning. Ireland insisted that all normal internationally recognised warnings had been given and said that only a few of the 600 rounds of light-arms fired had hit the boat. The five-hour chase through a force eight gale in the Irish Sea ended when the trawler entered British waters. Later she sent a mayday distress call that she was in imminent danger of sinking about 70 km north of Land’s End. The Irish authorities had allowed the trawler to continue unmolested when she reached British waters because there was a fear of casualties if the clash continued, said an Irish Defence Forces spokesman.