A TRAWLER that sank in mysterious circumstances with the loss of all hands was not spying, an inquiry heard yesterday.

Attorney General Lord Goldsmith told a public inquiry into the sinking of the trawler Gaul that there was no evidence the ship had been spying for the British Government.

Although the official reason for the disaster, in which 36 men died, was bad weather, relatives have always said the ship was spying

They believe it may have been sunk when its nets caught on a cable that had been laid in the Cold War to monitor the movements of Soviet submarines.

Among those who died were Ronald Bowles, of Wallsend, North Tyneside, and James Wales, John O'Brien, Neil Peterson, James Woodhouse and James McKellar, all from North Shields, North Tyneside.

The Attorney General said it was proper that the inquiry should consider speculation that has been ongoing since the disaster 30 years ago that the Gaul was involved with espionage. He was opening an inquiry into what happened to the Hull trawler, which was lost in the Barents Sea, off the northern tip of Norway.

Lord Goldsmith told the inquiry, which is being held in Hull, that the Defence Intelligence Staff, MI6 and GCHQ had examined what material they held of relevance to the loss of the Gaul. He said they found nothing.

He said: "All three services have confirmed they have no documents which are relevant to these questions.

"In addition, witness statements have been provided by officers by both the Defence Intelligence Staff and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) which gives some background to the use made of trawlers other than the Gaul in the 1960s and early 1970s."

The Attorney General told the inquiry that MI6 had told him a Royal Navy Commander was stationed in Hull during the 1960s to liaise with trawler skippers over intelligence. He said the scheme ended when he retired in 1971.

Lord Goldsmith said: "The scheme was not in operation by the time the Gaul was built, nor during the time she was in service."

But he said that despite the scheme not being in operation in the early 1970s, two trawlers were used by the Royal Navy for secret missions in the Barents Sea.

Lord Goldsmith said the trawler Invincible was used in 1972 in an attempt to recover a lost missile, and the vessel Lord Nelson was used for a similar purpose in 1973.

The Attorney General said: "On both occasions the mission was unsuccessful."

He said: "There is nothing which suggests that the Gaul was engaged in any activity other than fishing on her last voyage.