A 12ft long torpedo believed to date from the First World War, was an unwelcome 'catch of the day' for a Looe trawlerman on Wednesday morning.
After an emergency call to Brixham Coastguard at around 9.00am, from Armond Toms, skipper of the Arrant, a Royal Naval Bomb Disposal Unit from Plymouth was alerted.
In an operation that lasted over three hours, divers from the unit were able to carry out a controlled explosion. The trawler, about a mile off Looe Bay, was taken to deeper water off Downderry, before the torpedo was cut free of the trawler nets to enable it to sink to the sea bed. A charge was then placed in it with a four minute fuse. the resulting explosion sent a water flume 25ft into the air.
Before carrying out the operation the bomb experts set up a 2,000 metre exclusion zone. The Looe coastguard marshalled a fleet of canoeists from Duchy College to safety on East Looe Beach, and there was relief when the port's famous one eyed seal, Nelson was observed swimming into the harbour and up river. There were concerns that had he been in the vicinity, that shock waves from the explosion would have harmed him.
Looe RNLI were also on standby to evacuate Mr Toms and his crew Scott Gibson if necessary. Speaking afterwards Mr Toms said he knew there was something very heavy in his net when his gear started to strain. 'When we got the net up to the boat I could see the cone shaped nose' he said 'My first thought was 'I don't want this' I served in the Royal Engineers and knew straight away it was a bomb.' He spoke of his relief when the Bomb Disposal Unit arrived on the scene and praised them as being 'fantastic'. Mr Tom's wife, Rayna, waited anxiously on Looe quay throughout the drama.
The Arrant lost a whole day's fishing, and the nets worth £1,200, needed five hours of repair work.