Tag Archives: F/V Snoopy
The story of the Maine fishing boat sunk by a torpedo off North Carolina
F/V Snoopy was a wooden scallop dragger whose home port was Portland, Maine. In May of 1965, while dragging for scallops off the coast of North Carolina, she was sunk by a German torpedo. One night, just after 9 PM, the crew of the Snoopy, one of about 40 scallop vessels in the area that night, pulled in their nets. Looking at the catch, they noticed something that did not belong: a German G7e torpedo! The weapon was massive. That particular type of torpedo was over 20 feet long and it weighed in at over 3,500 pounds. Despite the potential danger of bringing an unexploded torpedo aboard, the crew made the decision not to just cut it loose. >click to read<, and >click here< 12:53
Fifty Years Ago Today: The tragic sinking of Portland scallop trawler F/V Snoopy still vivid
The Associated Press reported at the time that the Snoopy was “blown to bits” in a “freak explosion.” News reports from the 1960s suggested that while fishermen would at times bring up World War II munitions in the years after the war, it was extremely rare for them to explode. While all the fishermen were from Maine, the scallop supply had depleted off the coast of Maine in the mid-1960s, and his brother and others looked to points south for better fishing, George Doody said. On the fateful trip, they trawled for scallops near the Outer Banks off North Carolina. Doody said they almost left to return to Maine the day before, but decided to stay one more day. Read the rest here
