13th time LUCKY as fisherman nets deadly mine (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)

13th time LUCKY as fisherman nets deadly mine

5:00pm Monday 20th August 2012 in News

A FISHERMAN'S luck held out despite catching his 13th war-time mine after the deadly German one-tonne bomb failed to detonate.

Paul Gilson, 58, feared for his life when he pulled up the Second World War magnetic mine about 17 miles southeast of Harwich.

“I said to the crew if it goes off you are not going to feel, hear or see anything," he said.

“You are always lucky when they don’t go off. There is always a chance and the more you catch, the more likely one will go off.”

The first warning came when Mr Gilson’s boat, the Janeen, slowed to 1.5 knots.

He thought his nets had caught on the seabed and hauled them up – only to find a two-and-a-half-metre explosive swinging off the back of his boat. The veteran of more than 40 years at sea delicately lowered the mine back to the sea bed and warned other seamen of its location.