
Sunken Urk boat's net got caught up in shipwreck: Rescue org.
Lummetje, fishing cutter UK165 from Urk that sank in the North Sea west of Texel last week, got its net stuck on a shipwreck, according to Jouke Soelstra of rescue organization KNRM. The area around De Razende Bol sand bank is very treacherous due to the many shipwrecks there, he said to Noordhollands Dagblad.
"The mast or other part of the wreck is hidden under the sea sand, but due to the effect of the tide, such a wreck suddenly protrudes above the seabed on a bad day", Soelstra said. "Then fate can strike if a fishing net gets caught."
This conclusion is based on the last movements of the cutter, reconstructed based on data from marinetraffic.com. "The signal from the UK165 indicates that the crew tried to release the net from the wreck. You see the beacon, which indicates the location of the cutter, go back and fourth a few times", Maarten Noot of KNRM said to the newspaper. "Suddenly a cross appears on that spot: the ship is wrecked."
According to the KNRM, the Lummetje got caught up on Swedish cargo ship Ruth, which sank in 1842 after being attacked by RAF aircraft.
Lummetje got into trouble early on Thursday morning. A naval ship quickly managed to locate the sunken cutter using its sonar equipment, but divers could not go down to search the boat for days due to poor weather conditions. On Sunday the bodies of the two fishermen on board the boat - 27-year-old Hendrik-Jan de Vries and 41-year-old Jochem Foppen - were found in the boat's wheelhouse.