Royal Navy detonates dangerous torpedo
A dangerous torpedo dredged up by a trawler was detonated by the Royal Navy safely at sea today amid a dramatic plume of water off Plymouth...

The Royal Navy’s Southern Diving Unit based at HM Naval Base Devonport was alerted early this morning after a trawler discovered the ordnance in its nets yesterday and was helped to depositing the unwanted catch in the sea 800 metres south of Plymouth Breakwater to keep it safe from shipping temporarily. The safety area round the torpedo was reinforced by a shipping exclusion zone overseen by Ministry of Defence Police and coastguard.

The trawler Katherine M had been fishing off of Cawsands Bay yesterday afternoon, (Sunday) when on lifting her nets she discovered large brass item some four feet long and 21 inches in diameter. The duty watch from the Southern Diving Unit, who were at the time dealing with an incident in Swansea, were tasked to deal with the item.

The bomb disposal team consisting of Chief Diver Neil Smith, Leading Diver Carvell and Diver Ansell arrived back at their Plymouth headquarters at 3pm. The team then deployed to carried out a detailed examination of the warhead which is yet to be identified, but it is thought to have been an early German submarine torpedo dating back to around 1920.

The warhead was then carefully hoisted off the deck and lowered to the seabed where it remained overnight until today.

The same diving team sailed out to the warhead again today and two four-pound explosive countermining charges were placed on the torpedo by the divers and in consultation with the Royal Navy’s port control staff in the Longroom, the charges were detonated at 9.30am.

When the torpedo was detonated in a controlled explosion it was accompanied by a huge plume of water, indicating the torpedo was live and had been a potential danger to shipping.

The Southern Diving Unit maintain 24-hour seven-day-week bomb disposal cover 365 days a year. This week the team has dealt with four other incidents, including two British mines reported on Newquay beach.