Norwegians Net a US Sub
If you know someone into fishing, you’ve heard a story of the big one that got away. No matter your catch is a small fry compared to what a bunch of Norwegian fishermen recently caught. The crew of a small Norwegian fishing boat was checking their nets in the Norwegian Sea when they suddenly got a bizarre call. On the other end of the line was the U.S. Coast Guard, which informed them that one of the Navy’s subs had gotten tangled in their net. Of course, the net wasn’t designed to catch anything the size of a submarine, so the Coast Guard representative informed the fishermen that the net had been destroyed. The incident happened on November 11 in the waters of the Norwegian Sea, west of the city of Tromsø. At the time, the small 32-foot-long fishing vessel Øygutt was out and about checking its nets. “We had just emptied the nets and put them out again and were on our way back to shore at Sommarøya, when we were called by the U.S. Coast Guard,” the Øygutt’s captain said./i
The call wasn’t about where Øygutt was. As it turned out, the fishermen had just snagged USS Virginia. The nuclear-powered, cruiser missile-armed submarine had been cruising near the surface when it had accidentally gotten tangled in one of Øygutt’s nets. It had dragged the net out to the sea for two nautical miles before its crew realized what had happened. Now, the net wasn’t a flimsy little thing. It was designed to catch halibut, which can weigh more than 100 pounds each. That said, a nearly 380-foot-long nuclear submarine is still bigger than any halibut that ever lived. So, the US Coast Guard informed Øygutt that there wasn’t much left of the net. That’s especially because the Coast Guard had to sail out from their base in Norway to help USS Virginia’s crew cut the net off the submarine. Fortunately for Engen and his crew, the Coast Guard said they’re looking into reimbursing them for the loss. Engen bears no grudge, though. If anything, he now has an unbeatable fishing story to tell. “I know about other vessels that have sailed over fishing nets, but no one out here has ever heard about a submarine going through one,” he said.
Funny though Engen said no one has heard of a submarine being caught in fishing nets, this isn’t the first time it has happened. In 1984, a Norwegian trawler also caught a sub. That time, however, it was a Soviet one. And it was even bigger than the USS Virginia. After getting caught in the trawler’s nets in international waters, the Soviet crew attempted to break free for 30 minutes while staying underwater. At that point, the Soviet crew decided to surface — still wrapped in the net. They came out and cut the net off their ship. There are no reports about how embarrassed the Russian crew was, but we can make some guesses.
Norwegian Sea jokes
Working on the computer is like driving a submarine.
Once you open windows, the problems begin.
How do you sink a submarine full of blondes?
You knock on the door.
Submarine ride to visit the wreck of the Titanic, $250,000.
Permanently join the wreck of the Titanic, priceless!
If everybody in the world held hands around the equator, most of them would drown.
November 19th Birthdays
1961 – Meg Ryan, 1962 – Jodie Foster, 1994 – Cleo Massey, 1977 – Kerri Strug
1942 – Calvin Klein, 1997 – McCaughey septuplets, 1984 – Adam Driver, 1988 – Patrick Kane