A group of Norwegian fishermen were having trouble reeling in their nets last week on Veterans Day. They weren't sure what they'd caught, but they shortly realized it was a football field-long nuclear submarine.
The 377-foot, 7,800-ton, nuclear-powered USS Virginia was heading into port with a Norwegian Coastguard vessel escorting it when it was caught in Harald Engen's trawl nets.
Engen captains a 32-foot fishing vessel that usually only catches halibut; imagine his surprise when he got a call that a nuclear submarine was entangled in his nets.
'I know about other vessels that have sailed over fishing nets, but no one out here has ever heard about a submarine doing so,' Engen said.
Lt. Peirson Hawkins of the U.S.'s 6th fleet said the navy was looking into the incident, but there was no comment on what the submarine was doing at the Norwegian port.
Luckily, the Norwegian coast guard was able to cut the submarine free without incident. Apparently, submarines getting snagged in fishing nets is more common than you think, and it often doesn't go well for the fishing boat.
For example, back in 1990, the Irish fishing boat the Antares got its nets entangled with the UK's submarine, the Trenchant, and the submarine sank the boat in seconds, killing everyone on board.
Boy, if the USS Virginia hadn't been heading into dock at a slow pace, this might have ended very differently.
Luckily, Engen will be able to go to the local pub and regale his listeners with one of the biggest fish tales ever.
I guess sometimes you go fishing and catch a submarine, even if you're just out there for the halibut.
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