Is this the end for the Unquiet Grave...
or is this just the beginning?

Peace at last for the families, or the start of a new nightmare?

Every day for the past three weeks I have spoken to a lady who has lived with hope and despair in her heart for every day of the last 28 years.
She is not alone. Her hope and despair have been shared by the families of the 36 crew who disappeared when The Gaul trawler sank in The Barents Sea in February 1974.
Since June 25th a Government financed survey has been searching the wreck of The Gaul from aboard the survey vessel Seisranger pictured above. In the next few days the ship will return, but what, if any, secrets will it reveal to end the hope and despair of these people in Hull and beyond?
The signs are not encouraging. The families are worried that at the time of writing there had been no confirmed reports of human remains being discovered. As far as they are concerned the prime objective of this survey was to find them.
They want to bury them along with the nightmare of the last 28 years which is the bizarre enigma of The Gaul.
You will have read little of the events of the past three weeks in the national Press. They do not seem to know how to deal with the story. Some think it is history, others are more concerned with the banalities of Big Brother. To understand the reality of the story of The Gaul is beyond them so they ignore the most enduring marine mystery of the 20th and so far, the 21st century.
Behind the scenes in Hull there is much bickering and jockeying for position among the Gaul Families' Association committee which is not aiding their cause for the public inquiry which will result from the findings of this survey.
Officialdom at local and national level has often overshadowed the real cause to be fought for here...the truth of what happened to The Gaul, the crew, and why.
Perhaps the prime example of that is with the lady I mentioned at the start of this piece. She is Sheila Doone, wife of The Gaul's radio operator, John Doone. Elsewhere on my site you will read of how she is being refused the right to marry her current partner. She is being refused that right from the highest level because I, in 1982, reported a story that her husband had been "sighted" in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in 1978. Someone somewhere attaches a lot of credence to that story, read it here.
Last October she was 60. She has still not received her pension because of a myriad of excuses from the pensions department in Newcastle.

John Doone's name appears on a plaque in Hull along with the other crew members. It is in their memory but the truth is, that until someone proves otherwise, they are very much a reality.
There is no doubt that the ship is at the bottom of The Barents Sea. The man who discovered it, Norman Fenton, is on board the survey vessel representing the families. In him has been placed more faith, trust and hope than in any of the other experts who come from a variety of sources both governmental and legal.
To many, including me, The Gaul has become an obsession, so what must it have become for those who lost their loved ones in February 1974?
For Beryl Betts, for Betty Parker, for Mike Spurgeon, for Ken Collier, for all of you who have seen the names on the memorial plaque in Hull?
Today I will speak again to Sheila Doone. I have heard every emotion in her words, and the words of her family, over the last 28 years. In the last three weeks I have particularly heard anxiety, worry, bewilderment and questioning.
The time is fast approaching for final answers from the survey on which so many hopes are resting. Will we get them?
I wonder when I will be able to make my last telephone call to Mrs Doone...to congratulate her on her marriage. Then, and only then, will The Unquiet Grave of The Gaul have been laid to rest.