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Video:
Bomb being detonated off the Isle of Grain

EXCLUSIVE

by Jamie Stephens

jstephens@thekmgroup.co.uk

From the weight it seemed like the catch of the century. Instead
it was a catch from last century and the last thing you'd want
turning up in your fishing net.

Sea fishing is a dangerous pursuit
at the best of times but when your haul is a 400lb Second World War
mine you know you're in for a tricky morning.

"It was a bit of a surprise to be
honest," explains Richard Edes, the skipper of the Wayward Lad. "We
snagged it just after 3am and it was covered in mud so we weren't
actually sure what it was until the sun came up. It was only my
crew mate Kieran's second week on the job. He might be having
second thoughts now!

After a call to Dover Coastguard,
the two men gingerly packed fish boxes around the mine to hold it
in place, before heading to the Isle of Grain to rendezvous with a
Navy explosive ordinance team.

"That was quite nervy. We kept
getting hit by swells as ships went past which caused the mine to
roll around the deck a bit. Then the top of it containing the
detonators cracked and came away. That caused a fair amount of
swearing onboard."

Meanwhile the explosives team was making its way
from Portsmouth. The four-man team from the Southern Diving Unit 2
led by Petty Officer Ken Smith then boarded Wayward Lad to see what
they were dealing with.

He said: "It was around 3ft in
diameter and the outer casing was pretty corroded. There was a big
hole in it so I shone a torch in and established the charge casing
was intact. There was also a lobster living in there so I thought I
best take him out."

After checking they weren't above
any underground gas pipes, the team then packed the mine with
plastic explosives and carefully lowered it to the sea bed.

With a half-mile exclusion zone set
up by Dover Coastguard, the Wayward Lad retreated to a safe
distance before a controlled explosion was carried out, throwing a
huge, 25-metre jet of water into the air.

A spokesman for Dover Coastguard
said: "We get ordinance finds all the time but it's very rare we
get a sea mine of this type. Most of the ordinance we deal with has
been airdropped in the form of flatmines which are designed to sit
on the seabed."

PO Ken Smith said: "You don't see
these type of buoyant mines very often. The outing casings are
quite thin so they corrode very easily and the charge just drops to
the seabed. So it's pretty rare to be called out to deal with
one.

"It's likely the GX buoyant mine
was laid by a German mine layer or Q-Ship - heavily armed
merchant ships with concealed weaponry.

"if they hit in the right place...they could sink a battleship." – ken smith

Despite Richard's nonchalance, Ken
Smith says the outcome could well have been very different:

"Those mines are pretty heavy duty
explosives-wise and it would have completely destroyed a fishing
vessel. If they hit in the right place between the air tight
compartments they could sink a battleship."

But that hasn't put
Leigh-on-Sea-based fisherman Richard off returning to Margate
shores:

"The fishing's far too good for
that. We'll be back next week."