On November 11, a group of fishermen from Norway had the surprise of their lives when their fishing net, which was meant to catch halibut, ended up trapping a huge U.S. nuclear submarine! This unbelievable event took place off the coast of Norway, near the Malangen fjord, and left the fishermen with a crazy story to tell.
The fishermen, led by 22-year-old Harald Engen, were out on their small boat, the Øygutt, just like any other day. They had finished emptying their nets and were heading back to shore when they got an urgent call from the Coast Guard. It turns out their fishing net had somehow gotten tangled around the propeller of the USS Virginia, a 115-meter-long nuclear-powered submarine!
At first, the fishermen couldn’t believe it. They had heard of fishing nets getting caught by other boats, but a submarine? That was something completely new. The Coast Guard explained that the submarine had been sailing near the island of Senja and had unknowingly sailed straight into their net. The net had been dragging behind the submarine for about two nautical miles!
The USS Virginia, a Virginia-class submarine, was in the area as part of routine naval activities. This submarine has been seen more often off Norway’s coast recently, but no one expected it to get caught in a fishing net! The submarine was surfacing at the time when the net became entangled in its propeller, causing a strange and unexpected problem.
Luckily, there were no injuries, and no damage was reported on the submarine. The Norwegian Coast Guard quickly stepped in to help. They sent a vessel to assist in cutting the net free from the submarine’s propeller. The fishermen, mostly in their 20s, found the whole situation pretty funny, though. They couldn’t stop laughing about how they had accidentally caught a nuclear submarine instead of fish!
As crazy as it sounds, this is not the first time a fishing net has caused trouble for military vessels. In 1990, a British fishing boat sank after its net got caught on a Royal Navy submarine. But this story of fishermen catching a U.S. nuclear sub in their net is a one-of-a-kind encounter.
While the fishermen did lose a net in the process, they gained a wild story that will be talked about in local pubs for years to come. It just goes to show, you never know what’s lurking beneath the water!
