THE wife of a trawlerman believed to have drowned when his boat sank mysteriously 26 years ago today said she felt degraded after being told she would have to divorce him before she can remarry.

Sheila Doone believes her husband, John, a radio operator on the Gaul died along with 35 other men more than a quarter of a century ago when it was sunk, probably by a huge wave, off north Norway.

But she has been told she will need a legal divorce unless she can prove her husband is dead.

No bodies have been recovered since the vessel vanished in 1974 amid rumours that it was spying on the Soviet fleet.

A Marine Accident Investigation Branch report, published in April 1999, found no evidence of espionage and said the vessel, which is now lying 900 feet down on the sea bed, was probably sunk after being pounded by large waves.

There have been rumours that John is still alive and that he was seen in Port Elizabeth South Africa four years after the tragedy.

Mrs Doone, of Sackville Street, Brierfield, went to the Register Office at Burnley to arrange her wedding to long time companion, Ernest. She was told she needed a death certificate for her husband or to get a legal divorce.

She said: "I've lived with the loss of my husband for 26 years and now I'm being asked to divorce someone I know is dead.

"I'm being told to put my future on hold once again. All I want to do is to spend my future with the man I love. Other widows of the Gaul crew have been allowed to remarry, so why can't I?"

Ernest said Sheila felt degraded that she had been asked to go through a divorce with a man she knew had been dead for 26 years.

She had notification from the Gaul owners that it had been lost at sea and an official certificate known as an "extract from a Return of Death" from the register of Shipping and Seamen.

He said an expedition should go down to the ship to recover the bodies to bring a final end to the story and added: "The authorities are dragging their feet and making excuses, it is just dragged out for another year and then another and another." Mrs Doone has been fighting along with families of the other crew members, to discover the truth behind the accident.

Superintendent Registrar for Burnley and Pendle Peter Loftus said the report was inconclusive and did not prove Mr Doone was dead, especially in view of the reported sighting.

He said: "I took my advice from the Registrar General.

"When someone is dead or divorced there is documentary evidence, but in her case the information she had was not conclusive and I told her to take legal advice."

He said it was quicker for Mrs Doone to obtain a divorce than to go through the process of establishing death.

He added: "All I am concerned about is her marital status and that requires evidence."