DOOMED trawler the Gaul may have been capsized after being caught side-on to high winds and heavy seas, according to her former

skipper.

Speaking on the third day of the re-opened inquiry into her sinking, retired seaman Ernest Suddaby said the Gaul "would go through anything" heading into the wind, but could have been blown over with the wind at her back or sides.

A group of relatives, including Sheila Doone, of Sackville Street, Brierfield, have been campaigning for 30 years to be told the truth about the sinking.

Her husband, John, was a radio operator on the trawler when it sank in 1974 amid claims it was involved in spying.

Mr Suddaby was asked by Timothy Saloman QC, counsel for the Gaul Families' Association, if he had formed his own opinion of what happened to the ship after viewing the wreckage on a survey in 2002.

He said: "When it was all over and we'd had a talk about it, I couldn't visualise that anything that happened to that ship would have happened while she was heading into the wind.

"I think she would have gone through anything, that ship, heading into the wind. I thought she had maybe fell off the wind. She was a very high-sided vessel.

"Maybe dodging on automatic steering, if you got the wind on her back she could have fallen over and then you can't get her back. You've got to use the revs of your engines."

Mr Suddaby also said damage to the wreck suggested she had been battered by high seas on her port side. The inquiry, being held in Hull, is a re-hearing of an investigation first held in November 1974. It is expected to last five weeks and continues today.